Just Won't Die 9: Shinji
by OneShot
Summary: This is a Ranma/Neon Genesis Evangelion/BubbleGum Crisis/Slayers/Hajime no Ippo/Ah!Megami-sama crossover. This chapter centers around Shinji after his adventure in Just Won't Die Final. Shinji attends college and attempts to live a normal life.


Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong

Just Won't Die 9: Shinji

Shinji wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked up at the ceiling of Ranma's dojo. He noted that the rafters supporting the roof of the dojo looked fairly new. Then again, he shouldn't be surprised since this dojo had been built probably no more than five years ago.  
Ranma sat down in the middle of the dojo floor by Shinji's side. The setting sunlight filtering in through the open windows made him looked much more mature than his actual personality indicated.  
"I don't think I'll ever beat you," Shinji commented, sitting upward, facing Ranma.  
Ranma shrugged. There was nothing to say. He didn't want to sound arrogant, but there was no way Shinji would ever beat him. He was just that good.  
"I have a question, if you're so good a fighter, how come you never enter competitions?" Shinji asked. Although he generally spent quite a bit alone with Ranma training, he never thought to ask that question until now, after a good few years had passed.  
Ranma shrugged again, something he constantly did, "I think it's because I find no need to compete. I'm good at martial arts but I don't feel the need to go out and prove to everyone.  
"Oh," Shinji said, feeling a bit disappointed. Ranma regarded Shinji for a moment. He had to admit that Shinji had grown quite a bit since the fourteen year old child he met a few years ago. He didn't even look quite like it did back then, having grown several inches taller and his facial features becoming more angular and sculpted. His frail frame was no longer there, having been molded in to a slim but powerful body. Shinji had the same kind of body that Ranma had when he was his age. The only difference was that Ranma had concentrated on training and becoming fit and well built. Shinji, on the other hand, had to juggle between that and college as well. As a first year college student at the prestigiouwas kyo University, Shinji was not only very athletic, but also very smart.  
"How come you ask?" Ranma asked curiously.  
"I guess it's because I would've loved to have seen the impact you'd have done to the martial arts world if it ever got wind of how powerful martial artists can become," Shinji commented. "Even if I did enter tournaments and such, which I would never do, It's not right if I do do that," Ranma said, "In case you're wondering, I'm not quite on the same level as you and everyone else,"  
Shinji nodded, "I know. You're an Angel, with AT field an all,"  
Ranma smirked, "Dontcha think that would give me an unfair advantage over mere humans?"  
"I guess you're right," Shinji sighed. "Why dontcha do it?" Ranma asked, "Why don't you enter tournaments and such?"  
Shinji blushed, "M-me? E-enter tournaments? F-fight other people? I can't do that!"  
"Why not?" came a simple question, "I'm sure you've thought about it from time to time. Y'know, 'What's the good of becoming a powerful martial artist if no one acknowledges you as one?'"  
"W-well, I have thought about it," Shinji said nervously, looking down at the floor, "But considering how you've only been training me for a few years, there's no way I can compete against people who've been training for as long as five to ten times longer than myself,"  
"In case you're wondering, the way I've been training you is unorthodox," Ranma said.  
Shinji chuckled slightly, "I think I figured it out. The fact that you start off every one of our sparring sessions with you giving me a lot of your ki ought to have given me such a clue. But then again, without you giving me your ki, I wouldn't be able to brush off a fraction of the attacks you land on me,"  
"In case you're wondering," Ranma said, "Even though you believe I'm imbuing you with my ki, that isn't the case. I stopped doing that about a month ago. I merely stand there while you absorb the ki I let forth,"  
"R-r-really?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
"Nah, I'm just kidding," Ranma smirked.  
Shinji's face became somber, "How come I'm not surprised,"  
"What, you think you can just up and learn how to use ki like me in just a few years?" Ranma smiled, "I don't think so. It took me several years before I became really efficient in using it, and I'm a fast learner,"  
"So I guess it'll take me around ten years to be able to use it effectively, huh?" Shinji asked, depressed.  
"Give or take," Ranma said.  
"Man, I'd love to use ki like you can,"  
"Just keep practicing," Ranma said, "That's all I can say. You can shoot ki-  
blasts with no problem. However, that's with me giving you the ki to release in to such a blast. You still have a long way to go in actually drawing in and out your own ki to do such a thing. That'll take a while,"  
"Here's a question," Shinji thought up, "How am I compared to you, when you were my age,"  
Ranma laughed aloud.  
"That big a gap, huh?" Shinji felt even more depressed.  
"In case you're wondering, if you look at the way I am now," Ranma said, "I'm just a faster and stronger version of what I was when I was your age,"  
"Damn," Shinji said.  
"However, that was because I was training since I was a lil kid," Ranma added, "Keep that in mind. You trained for only a few years and you surpass people that have been training for much longer than that,"  
"I just wish I'm good enough to at least compete against you,"  
Ranma narrowed his eyes, "What makes you think you're not competing against me? You keep me on my toes. Keep in mind you've actually land a blow in every here and there, which is an incredible feat considering my reflexes,"  
Shinji laughed, "To date, I have never hit you in a frontal assault. The blows I do hit you with are all in the back of your head, which seems to be your weakness,"  
"Y'think?" Ranma smirked, "Then again, I doubt I'm the only one that has a weakness against being attacked in the back of the head, especially when I don't see an attack coming,"  
Shinji was silent. It was underhanded to attack someone from behind, but against someone like Ranma, it was probably the only possible way of landing a blow.  
"You're a really good fighter, Shinji," Ranma said truthfully, "You're a lot better than you believe. Even though you've only been training for a few years, the training you undergo is unorthodox,"  
"Of course," Shinji smirked, "However, getting beaten down by you every day isn't what I consider traditional training,"  
Ranma smiled, "You don't get it, do you? The training you do, although unorthodox, is a lot more helpful than you believe,"  
"I don't really see it," Shinji muttered.  
"What's the one rule I told you to follow that would allow you the opportunity to be trained by me?" Ranma asked.  
"To never use what you've taught me with intent for malice," Shinji said, "or to show off. I only use what you've taught me for defensive purposes,"  
"And my belief?" Ranma asked.  
"That a strong dog doesn't need to bark," Shinji replied, "That's why I never start fights. Either that or back down in case of a confrontation,"  
"That's right," Ranma nodded proudly.  
"Of course, there was that one time-"  
Ranma grinned, "Don't worry, feel free to beat a few heads in from time to time. However, because you're a skilled fighter, that doesn't give you the right to beat people up,"  
"I know, that's why I never fought against anyone since," Shinji said emphatically.  
Ranma shrugged, "Hey, I didn't say I didn't believe you or nothing. Anyway, the point is is that because you follow those instructions, you have no idea how good a fighter you are. You're an extremely skilled fighter,"  
"I-I am?" Shinji perked up slightly. He always liked getting compliments.  
Ranma got up and walked over to a bokken rack located by the corner of the dojo. He picked up of those wooden swords and walked over to Shinji, holding one forward for him to take.  
Shinji go up to his feet and took the weapon.  
"What do you want me to do with it?" Shinji looked at the bokken curiously.  
"Break it," "But-"  
"Who cares," Ranma said, "It's just one bokken. It's not like I can't get more. If the price of one or two bokkens being destroyed to teach you something is what it cost, then so be it,"  
"Okay," Shinji said.  
Shinji grabbed either end of the bokken with each hand, holding the weapon parallel to the floor. In one swift motion, he brought the bokken downward while raising his left knee, breaking the weapon cleanly in half.  
"Excellent," Ranma said, "Now, did you have trouble breaking it?"  
"No," Shinji shook his head. The then looked at Ranma curiously, "I don't understand,"  
"You just broke that with no problem, something not many people can do," Ranma said.  
"But it's not that hard to break one,"  
"For someone like you it isn't," Ranma nodded, "But for the average person, it's really hard,"  
Shinji became silent, not really knowing what to think. He felt very proud of himself but didn't exactly know what to be proud of.  
Ranma held forward the second bokken, "Break this one. However, this time, use your bare hands,"  
"Um, o-okay," Shinji said nervously.  
Shinji took the bokken. He took several deep breaths. He then took on end of the bokken and dug it in to his right armpit. He held the other end with his left hand. He then snaked his right arm under the bokken and up so that it he could grip on to the top of his left forearm. Ranma smirked. Shinji gritted his teeth as he exerted his strength, pushing down with the left hand on the end of the bokken while pulling up with the right forearm that was snaked under the bokken. A loud snap could be heard as the bokken broke cleanly in half.  
"Congratulations," Ranma smiled, "You just broke it with just your bare hands, something probably around ninety nine percent of this world couldn't do,"  
Shinji looked at the broken weapons lying by his feet.  
"You understand?" Ranma said, "You're a lot stronger and powerful than you believe," "W-wow! I-I never knew that!"  
Ranma began heading for the dojo exit, "Anyway, even though the training you've been doing is very unorthodox, it does have it's benefits, much more so than traditional training,"  
"T-t-thanks. I never knew that," Shinji's eyes were wide. He was looking at his hands. He felt this sense of excitement. In a sense, it was exactly like he found out he had some special ability he never knew he had.  
"Oh yeah, you owe me for the bokkens,"

The next day, Shinji woke up early for a change, somewhere around four in the morning. But then again, it could have been because he went to sleep early. A heavy sleeper through and through, Shinji usually slept in until nine, his first class starting at ten-thirty. It took only twenty or so minutes to get to campus, leaving him with enough time to get ready and eat before he was expected out the door at around ten.  
He left at a later time than Rei and Asuka, the two of them being walked to school by Ranma.  
"Damn, it's so early," Shinji yawned, sitting up in his bed. He had gone to sleep at around eleven that night, very early by his standards. He was used to going to sleep at around three in the morning or so. Most people would think that since he was majoring in Engineering Science, he would be up that late doing homework and study. Little did they know that he was naturally good at college level courses and actually found himself with quite a bit of free time, finishing homework very quickly.  
Shinji flopped back down in his bed, intent on going back to sleep. However, when he heard the creaking of the floor of the hallway just outside his second story bedroom, he sat back upright.  
"Who's up now?" he asked himself.  
He threw his blanket off and walked over toward his door, not caring that he was only clad in his t-shirt and boxers. Opening the door, he was surprised to catch sight of Ranma as he walked down the hallway toward the stairs leading down.  
"Ranma?" he called out.  
Ranma turned around, a bit surprised, "Oh, g'morning. Did I wake you? Sorry about that,"  
"Morning. Nah, I was already awake," Shinji replied, "I went to sleep early. I guess my body's used to only five hours of sleep,"  
Ranma smirked, "Hm, I guess college does that to ya, huh?"  
"Where were you headed?"  
"Going out,"  
"It's four in the morning," Shinji said, "Where can you possibly go at four in the morning?"  
"I'm going for my morning jog," Ranma replied.  
"You go jogging this early in the morning?" Shinji was very surprised. He didn't even know Ranma jogged in the first place. Ranma nodded, "I jog every morning at around now. You just happen to be sleeping when I leave the house and still asleep when I come back,"  
"Man, I never knew that,"  
"Well now you know," he replied.  
"How often you been doing this?"  
Ranma thought for a moment, "Every day since the Nerima Massacre, when my friends and family were killed. Of course, I only do it when I'm not busy with one of my lil adventures,"  
"Oh,"  
"Care you join me?" Ranma asked.  
Shinji seemed somewhat interested, "How far you jog?"  
"Around twenty miles," Ranma said, "Give or take. I usually jog over a few cities before turning around and heading back,"  
"T-t-twenty miles?" Shinji's eyes widened, "That's basically running a marathon every day,"  
"Yeah, so?" Ranma said, all the while grinning, "You should know by now that I'm kinda outta the ordinary. Running marathon lengths for me is less tiring for me than it is for you to, say, read a book,"  
Shinji said nothing.  
"Well, since you don't jog, it'd probably be really hard for you," Ranma said, "However, if you want, work you way up to jogging about as much as I do. That way, you'll be able to keep up,"  
"Perhaps," Shinji said, "Man, you must be in a lot better shape than I believe, to be able to jog like that, and on a regular basis,"  
Ranma smiled, "I try,"  
"You used to do this when you were young also?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma nodded, "Yep,"  
Shinji stopped for a moment, wanting to catch his breath. He felt like he was going to die from forcing himself to jog for so long. He hadn't jogged for more than around five miles but it felt like he had been running for hundreds of miles. His legs burned and his whole body ached.  
"God, how the hell does Ranma do it?" Shinji muttered, sitting down on a bench. He had only been jogging for around an hour and had luckily stumbled upon a bench when he did as he was jogging through a park.  
He rested there for a good fifteen minutes. As he did, he noticed the sun rising in the far off horizon beyond the buildings poking up in to the sky. It was probably around six or so.  
"Man, what was I thinking?" Shinji told himself. He was sweaty, tired, and around five miles away from home.  
"Well I'll be damned," came a familiar voice, "I didn't expect to see you here,"  
Shinji turned around and found himself looking at Ranma as Ranma was making his way down a path toward the bench.  
"What are you doing here?" Ranma asked, hopping over the bench and sitting down next to the young man.  
Shinji felt a bit embarrassed, "Well, I was trying to jog, but I guess I'm no good at it,"  
Great, yet another thing I'm not good at, Shinji thought sullenly. I can't beat Ranma in sparring. I can't consistently beat Asuka in sparring. I have trouble talking to girls. And now I can't even jog for five miles without getting tired.  
Ranma whistled, "You're around five miles away from home. Is this your first rest stop?"  
Shinji nodded.  
Ranma seemed impressed, "Not bad. Not bad at all,"  
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked, "You jog for twenty miles and you haven't even broken a sweat,"  
"That's cause I'm used to it," Ranma said, "However, for someone like you, who probably never jogged, being able to make it this far is excellent. Most people can't even jog for one mile without needing to rest. How long did it take you to reach this far?"  
"Been running for around an hour," Shinji replied.  
Ranma seemed disappointed, "Oh, nevermind. I figure it would have taken you around forty minutes to reach here, not an hour. At one hour for five miles, that's basically a twelve minutes mile, which is extremely slow,"  
Shinji smirked, "Sorry I don't meet up to your expectations,"  
"No matter," Ranma continued, "The fact that you went five miles, even if it was a rather slow pace, is very good,"  
"Thanks, I guess,"  
"So, you done resting?" Ranma smirked, "Wanna jog with me back home?"  
"You're finishing up with your jogging?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yep. I only have the rest of the trip back home before I finish with my usual twenty mile jog,"  
"Wow, it's probably around six," Shinji commented, "That means you jogged fifteen miles in around two hours. That averages to around six minutes a mile,"  
Ranma shook his head, "It's only ten after five. I left the house at four. That averages to about a mile every four minutes and forty seconds,"  
Shinji thinks about it for a moment, doing the math in his head. After a good minute, he agrees, "Yeah, you're right. Hey, did you do that in your head?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, why?"  
"You figured it out just like that," Shinji commented, "You must be really good with mathematics,"  
"Yeah," Ranma said, "That's probably the only form of academics I'm good at, math,"  
"Well, I'd jog with you back to the house, but there's no way I can jog at the speed you jog," Shinji commented.  
"Don't worry about it," Ranma replied, waving a dismissive hand, "I take it easy. I'll keep at the pace you go,"  
"Really? I don't wanna hold you back,"  
"Don't worry about it, it's fine," he said.  
"Okay,"  
Together, Shinji and Ranma started jogging back toward the house.  
"Say, how come you're out jogging anyway?" Ranma asked curiously.  
Shinji felt a bit embarrassed in saying it but said it nonetheless, "Well, even though I can't do what you do now, perhaps I can at least attain the level of where you were back then, before you started training exclusively after the Nerima Massacre,"  
Ranma smiled warmly, "All right. That's not an easy task but it's not an impossible one either. However, if you want, I'll help you every step of the way to achieve that goal,"

On the way home, Shinji spotted at building that caught his attention. He stopped to regard the building for a moment. The building had almost no windows and the few windows that it did, it had large posters posted on them.  
"Makunouchi Gym," he said aloud, reading the sign that hung above the entrance.  
"Something the matter?" Ranma asked, noticing Shinji stopping.  
Shinji jerked his thumb toward the gym, "Is that a boxing gym?"  
Ranma nodded, "That? Yeah, it is. Why? Oh, wait, you're interested in boxing?"  
Shinji blushed slightly, "I kinda like it. I've always had a interest in anything that has to do with martial arts. Boxing is one of them. Anyway, what I'm curious is to the name of the gym,"  
"Wanna go in?" Ranma asked, "The man who owns this gym, Makunouchi, I know him,"  
"Would the man who owns this gym happen to be none other than Makunouchi Ippo?" Shinji asked, his voice hopeful.  
Ranma seemed a bit surprised, "Yeah. How'd you know this?"  
"Really? It's him?" Shinji's eyes lit up, "Oh man, I didn't know he own a gym this close to where we live!"  
"That still doesn't answer my question," Ranma smirked.  
"Makunouchi Ippo," Shinji said, recalling the articles he had read about a long time ago, "This guy was the Featherweight Champion a few decades ago and was considered one of the greatest boxers of his time. A couple of years after he won that title, he jumped up several weight classes to take on and beat Mamaru Takamura, the Middleweight Champion at the time. From there, he moved up to yet more weight classes to beat a man named Kenmaru Roku, a man who used to be considered the world's greatest martial artist fighter back then but switched over to boxing and dominating until he fought Makunouchi-san,"  
"How do you know all of this?"  
Shinji gave a small smile, "Well, since I'm doing martial arts, I grew in to really enjoy knowing everything there is about various forms of it, boxing being one of them. Anyway, this Makunouchi guy is probably my favorite fighter of all time," He blushed, "Um, present company excluded of course. He'd be no match for you of course,"  
Ranma laughed, "Thanks. Anyway, if you want, I'll introduce you to him,"  
"Um, I-I dunno," Shinji became nervous, "I-I d-don't wanna bother him,"  
"He's a friend of mine," Ranma said, "I met him a long time ago, before I even settled in MegaTokyo,"  
"That was a long time ago," Shinji commented.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah. However, we don't bump in to each other much. I met him when I was jogging and he was doing jogging. I usually do my jogging before him so we rarely bump in to one another,"  
"Oh," "C'mon, let's go in," Ranma said, "I'll introduce you to him. He's a really cool guy,"  
"But it's six in the morning," Shinji commented, "Wouldn't we be disturbing him this early?"  
"Nah. His gym open at five. He's been open for over half an hour,"

"G-g-good morning, M-Makunouchi-san," Shinji said, extremely nervous. He regarded the gym owner intently. The man standing before him, although nearing sixty, looked to be in incredible shape. He looked to be much younger than what his actual age was. He had a timeless look to him, much like Ranma. Ranma looked as if he was still in his mid-twenties, even though he was probably nearing a hundred or so, provided one counted the time Ranma spent those years merged with Rei while in a person that eventually grew up to attend college.  
The man had short black spiky black hair. He looked to weigh probably around one hundred ninety pounds of ripped muscles. Shinji noticed that the man's forearms were massive, as if getting hit by him would be equivalent to be hitting with a baseball bat. There was an innocent child-like look to him.  
"Morning," Ippo bowed politely.  
Shinji, surprised at how such a formidable fighter in his day could be so nice in person, nervously bowed.  
"Please, call me Ippo," the man said, "What's your name?"  
"S-S-Shinji I-Ikari," Shinji stammered.  
Ippo smiled warmly, "It's nice to meetcha. There's no need to be nervous,"  
Ranma smiled, "How's everything going?"  
"It's nice seeing you again," Ippo said, "It's been a while since we last saw each other. So, what brings you guys here?"  
"Shinji here just wanted to meetcha," Ranma smiled, "Seems like he's a big fan of yours,"  
Shinji blushed a deep shade of red.  
"Really? Thanks," Ippo said, "I'm surprised that people still remember who I am. I retired from boxing over twenty years ago,"  
Shinji quickly said, "I know who you are. You are probably the greatest boxer to have ever entered the ring,"  
Ippo blushed slightly, scratching the back of his head, "Um, I wouldn't quite say something to that extent,"  
Ranma grinned. He didn't bother to mention that things might go differently had Ranma's given boxing a try. However, it didn't bother Ranma one bit. It wasn't as if he had something to prove.  
"I watched all your recorded matches," Shinji said, "My favorite was your fight against Takamura-san for the Middleweight Championship,"  
Ippo seemed embarrassed, "Really? You liked that one? I remember that match like it was yesterday. My opponent hit me so many times with so many hard punches that I actually started hallucinating during the fight,"  
"Really? I never knew that," Shinji's eyes widened.  
Ranma smiled. He noticed that Shinji looked very happy.  
"Although I managed to win at the very end with that lucky punch to my opponent's chin," Ippo said, "it definitely wasn't a pretty fight. It was completely one-sided until the very very end, during the twelfth round. Frankly, that fight wasn't anywhere near as one-sided as some of my earlier fights,"  
"You mean the fight against Miyata-san?" Shinji asked, "Your very first opponent, before you even became a pro?"  
Ippo gave Shinji a shocked look, "H-how'd you know?"  
"I read your biography," Shinji replied.  
"Oh," Ippo said, "I should've figured that,"  
Ranma, figuring it was best to leave Shinji and Ippo to talk in private, Ranma went about checking out the layout of the gym. He noted that it looked much like what the last remembered. It was basically a massive room where everyone trained. The entire room was empty of anyone but the three of them, the wide open area able to echo Shinji's and Ippo's conversations quite well.  
There are five water-filled punching bags located to the right of the entrance, the chains holding them hanging all the way down from the rafters of the very high ceiling. There were exercise equipment like a benches and dumbbells and barbells to the left of the entrance. Along the back left wall were five speed bags, an open area nearby most likely for exercises like jump-  
ropes or shadow boxing. By the center of the back of the room were two doors, one to the locker rooms and the other to the basement where there were was a whole lower section to the gym. In the center of the room there was a boxing ring. Last but not least, by the back right of the room was a door the most likely lead to Ippo's work office.  
As he looked around, he overheard a part of the conversation between Ippo and Shinji.  
"Yeah, if you become champion, this man comes out of hiding to challenge you," Ippo said, "His name is Boon, and boy, can that man give a beat down,"  
"Whoa, did I hear that correctly?" Ranma interrupted, "There's someone that'll come out of hiding to challenge Shinji if he becomes champion?"  
Ippo nodded, "Well, yes, but that's easier said than done. He only challenges champion-type fighters,"  
"What kind of guy is this?" Ranma asked, very interested. Ranma had considered doing this. Even though he would never enter tournaments, that never meant he wouldn't go about challenging the champions of a particular tournament. It meant that he wouldn't have to weed through unworthy opponents to fight the champion, or contended for champion, if he entered tournaments. It seemed like someone thought much like Ranma.  
Ippo turned toward Ranma, "I fought him decades ago, the very day after I beat Kenmaru and won the Heavyweight Championship as a matter of fact. I don't know much about him. His name is Boon, but I heard it's just a nickname given to him,"  
"What kind of guy is this Boon person?" Ranma asked.  
"Big," Ippo said, "Very big. Downright gigantic. He probably weighed around six hundred pounds,"  
Ranma seemed a bit disappointed, "Six hundred pounds? How does a guy that big move around if he weighed that much? Is he some kinda super sumo wrestler?"  
I guy that big must move really slow, Ranma thought.  
Ippo shook his head, "No. You'd think a guy that big is slow, huh? No way. That's not the case with him. He moves freakishly fast. Ranma, I've heard you're really fast, but I kind of wonder if that's fast enough to deal with someone like him,"  
"Well..." He opened his mouth to say something but choose against it. There was no need to say. Just like how Ranma didn't know much about Ippo, Ippo didn't know much about him. This was the first time Ranma found out Ippo was the Heavyweight Champion in the boxing world, a feat he had to respect and admire. Ranma knew that being a champion in any physical field of martial arts took an extraordinary amount of training.  
Ippo regarded Ranma for a moment. Ippo knew that Ranma was an excellent fighter, even though he never demonstrated it before. He knew Ranma taught martial arts classes and was a Grandmaster in the style called Anything Goes Martial Arts. Little did Ippo, or many other people for that matter, knew of Ranma's adventures or what he had become.  
"Anyway, Boon is a really good fighter," Ippo said, "An exceptional martial artist it seems. When we fought, he handicapped himself by allowing himself to only use his fists,"  
Ranma and Shinji listened intently, absorbing everything.  
"I lost to him badly," Ippo said, "I hit him fourteen times with my strongest punches and none of them seemed to have effected him. It's not something I'm proud of, but definitely nothing I'm ashamed of,"  
Ranma seemed impressed, "Wow, that's very impressive. Considering your size and the fact that you're a boxer, and was a Heavyweight Champion then, you must have a really powerful punch,"  
Ippo blushed, "I dunno about that. It's an okay punch,"  
"Man, I'm kinda eager to find out who this Boon guy is," Ranma commented.  
"A really nice guy, too," Ippo said, "Even though he challenged me, it was nothing than a friendly challenge. He just wanted to fight someone really good at fighting,"  
Ranma turned toward Shinji, "Hey, isn't that Ryoga's friend? Y'know, that dude he mentioned that has spiky hair that seems to love to fight,"  
Shinji shrugged, "I dunno,"  
"Anyway, where can I find this Boon guy?" Ranma asked, "If he's that good, I'd like to meet him,"  
"Why?" Shinji asked, confused, "It's not like he stands a chance against you,"  
"What makes you say that?" Ranma said, "There are very good fighters out there. There's always someone out there stronger than you,"  
Shinji scratched his head, smirking slightly, "Um, I doubt that applies to you. I mean, you were God once. I don't think anything can get more powerful than that,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Well, you have a point there, but I ain't God no more,"  
Ippo seemed confused, "What are you talking about?"  
"Nothing," Ranma gave a meek laugh.  
"Anyway, if you want to find him," Ippo started, "I don't think I can be of much help. He only showed up to fight champion-type fighters,"  
"You mentioned that the guy you beat, Kenmaru, used to be the Heavyweight Champion, has he ever fought him?" Ranma asked.  
Ippo nodded, "Yeah. Kenmaru beat Boon, at least that's what he claims,"  
"What, you don't believe him?" Shinji asked.  
Ippo shrugged, "It's not that I don't believe him. It's just that I find it very unlikely that someone like Boon would lose to someone Kenmaru. They fought before Kenmaru switched over to boxing. Keep in mind Boon handicaps himself by boxing against me. He's a martial artist, not a boxer. If Boon is a fraction as hard as when I fought him when he was handicapped, then I doubt Kenmaru could win,"  
Ranma seemed excited, "Man, this Boon guy seems really good. I'd really like to meet,"  
"Like I said," Ippo shrugged, "He only shows up to challenge you. I dunno if you'll ever find him. It's kind of a shame. I wouldn't mind fighting him. He was very very formidable. You don't fight good fights like that that often,"  
"Why not just do some kinda ad looking for him?" Shinji suggested, "If he sees it, he'll come to you since he'll know you're looking for him,"  
"I tried," Ippo said, "But he never showed up. I stopped looking for him around ten years ago,"  
"So the only way to get this guy to show up is to become champion?" Ranma asked.  
Ippo nodded.  
Ranma smirked. He turned toward Shinji, a grin on his face. This worried the young man.  
"Shinji, forget all that crap I taught you about only using what you learned for defensive purposes and not showing off," Ranma said, "I want you to become boxing champion,"  
Ippo gave Ranma a wry look, "I don't think you're taking boxing all that serious, Ranma. It's very hard work becoming champion,"  
"Can't you train him to become one?" Ranma smiled, "Shinji may not look like much, but don't let that fool ya,"  
"Gee, I dunno if I should be flattered or insulted," Shinji muttered.  
"Let's just say that I do take you in," Ippo said, "Which I would have no problem in doing so. However, you probably weight around that of a hundred and forty pounds. That's junior welterweight class,"  
"What about it?" Ranma asked, "What's wrong with Shinji's weight?"  
"Nothing," Ippo said, regarding Shinji for a moment, "However, considering this Boon guy only shows up to challenge the Heavyweight Champion, putting on around sixty pounds to reach that weight class is going to be very hard,"  
"Damn," Ranma said, "I never thought about that. It's gonna be really hard to gain weight," He smirked, at Shinji, "Too bad you aren't a girl. That way, all you'd need to do is look at a something to gain weight,"  
Shinji and Ippo nervously looked around. Luckily, they were all within the gym and there were no females around to hear that comment.  
Ranma laughed, "Hey, I just go with the flow. I've been slapped so many times the nerves in my cheeks have become so used to it that I don't even feel it anymore,"  
"You say that is if that's a good thing," Shinji chuckled.  
Ranma turned toward Ippo, "How about this be a joint project? I'll be in charge of getting the weight on him. You can be in charge of training him for upcoming matches?"  
Ippo thought about it for a moment. It couldn't hurt to try. If he became heavyweight champion, there was a chance Ippo could see Boon again and perhaps request a rematch. Ippo also noticed that there was a quality in Shinji that told Ippo that the young man can make quite an impact to the boxing world. And even if he couldn't make it to the heavyweight class, that wouldn't be all that bad since he would most likely dominate in any of the lower weight classes.  
"All right, I'll give it a try," Ippo said.  
"Cool," Ranma smiled, "Heh, this is gonna be a fun lil pet project. I'm looking forward to seeing how he turns out,"  
Shinji raised his hand, "Um, I'm still here,"

Shinji groaned as he sat in one of his classes later that day. He didn't pay all that much attention to what the teacher was teaching. It was a simple Physics class required for his major.  
"Me, a Heavyweight Champion, huh?" he asked himself, wondering if something like that was really possible.  
"Whatcha say?" a young girl Shinji's age asked him in a squeaky voice. She was the only female in the class.  
"Oh nothing, Sumi," he replied, giving her a meek reply, regarding her for a moment.  
She was in most of his classes, she being in the same major, Engineering Science, as him. She was a pretty girl, sporting short shoulder-length brown hair and wore glasses that made her look smart and cute at the same time. This was one of the few times she was wearing her glasses instead of contact lenses like she usually did. She had gotten her looks from her mother and her intelligence from her father.  
"Sometimes I wish the teacher would teach something interesting for a change," Sumi said, regarding Shinji for a moment.  
"I know whatcha mean," he replied, giving a meek laugh.  
She had to admit that Shinji stood out among the rest of the group of boys in her classes. He seemed to be the only one not intimidated by Sumi's social status. Her family was very wealthy, both of them outstanding and very prestigious members of society. Her father, Kyo, was the CEO of a major engineering firm, quite a contrast from what he used to do, working in the engine room of a ship named 'Witch Hunter', machinist-mate in ship term. There, he had met his future wife, whom had been hired as a cook. Her mother, Sayuri, now owned a massive chain of extravagant restaurants.  
Before they knew it, class had ended. That was the last class of the day and everyone sighed in relief as the teacher dismissed the class.  
"Hey, Shinji," Sumi called out as Shinji left the room.  
"Y-yeah?" he asked.  
"You worried about the upcoming test?" Sumi asked, catching up to him. As they walked along, it was noticeable that he stood good deal taller than her, the top of her head reaching his chin level.  
Shinji shook his head, "Not really. I've got a general idea what's going to be on it,"  
He was a bit surprised she was speaking to him. She rarely talked to the guys in her class. "You did pretty well on the last test, didn't you?" she asked.  
"Y-yeah, I got a ninety four," he said, feeling a bit proud of himself, "Of course, it wasn't as high as yours. That's very good of you, scoring a perfect hundred on a test that hard,"  
Sumi smiled slightly, "Thanks,"  
"Um, you want me hold your backpack for you?" he asked without much thought. He had grown accustomed to carrying girls' backpacks. Ranma, of all people, have taught and instilled in him a sense of courtesy toward the opposite sex.  
"Um, no need," she said, smiling slightly, "It's not heavy," That's awfully nice of him to ask, she thought.  
Together, the both of them emerged from the building where their class was held, a building labeled 'D cluster', a building where they would be spending most of their time in classes. Four of their five classes were in 'D cluster'. As they stepped out in to the breezing cool air, Shinji figured now was a good time to keep a conversation going. He was still working at talking more freely with girls, something he always had trouble with. "Um, what do you think of Engineering?" he asked, the best thing he could come up with after a moment of thinking. Sumi shrugged, "It's fine I guess. Gets a bit boring. I learned quite a bit from my dad. He works at an Engineering firm and I used to visit him at work and learn while there,"  
"Is it much like what we're learning?"  
"More or less," she replied. She looked up and saw someone leaning by the side of the building. She was a bit surprised to see him. It was a man that looked to be around two years older than Shinji that stood a good deal taller and larger than the young man.  
Shinji and Sumi had been walking in that direction but stopped when the man pushed off the building and approached them.  
"Hey, Sumi," the man said, leaning forward and kissing Sumi on the lips. This embarrassed her but also made her slightly nervous. "W-what are you doing here?" she asked.  
"What, I can't come see my girl whenever I like?" the man said, smirking at Shinji. His eyes were telling Shinji 'This is my woman, back off it you know what's good for you'. He didn't even need to give Shinji such a look for he already surmised that the man was her boyfriend.  
Sumi gave a meek smile.  
"Who's the twerp?" the man asked her, jerking a thumb toward Shinji.  
"What did you say?" Shinji narrowed his eyes at the man. His heart started racing as adrenaline started coursing through his veins. Sumi quickly jumped in to abate the tension, "T-this is Shinji, he's my classmate,"  
The boyfriend continued to narrow his eyes at Shinji, taking no action to acknowledge the young man.  
"T-this Tou," Sumi said, "M-my boyfriend,"  
"Nice to meetcha," Shinji said, almost gritting his teeth. Ranma had taught him better than that, that something like this was above him. It was perfectly all right for the man to be hostile toward Shinji since it seemed like Shinji was trying to get with his girlfriend.  
"C'mon, let's get going," Tou told Sumi, putting an arm over Sumi's shoulders, "I'll drive y'home,"  
"Um, there's no real need," she said nervously, "I'm not heading back to the dorms yet. I have to wait for my housemate to get out of class. Her class ends fifteen minutes from now. She'll be coming out of 'C Cluster' then,"  
'C Cluster' was located nearby. All the buildings were labeled alphabetically.  
"Fine, I'll wait you," he said.  
"Um, take care, Shinji," Sumi dared to tell him even though her boyfriend was there, "Good luck with the test,"  
"Thanks, you too," he replied.  
The man narrowed his eyes at Shinji before walking off along with a reluctant Sumi, "See y'round, kid,"  
Shinji clenched his hands in to fists. He stood there for several minutes, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. "It's not worth it," Shinji told himself, "Ranma would never approve. I'm the better man for not escalating it in to something like a fight," After he calmed himself down, he headed in the opposite direction of which Sumi and Tou had gone, heading toward 'G Cluster' where he was expected to wait to meet up with Rei and Asuka an hour later where they would all then head back home together.  
Arriving a his destination, Shinji sat down by one of the benches located in the front and closed his eyes, willing what had transpired to disappear from his mind. He passed his time wondering about what was in store for him, about what kind of training he would be undergoing for boxing. He had always liked boxing and didn't seem all that reluctant to actually give it a try. It wasn't that he was doing it for Ranma's sake, but more his own sake. As to gaining enough weight to reach over two hundred pounds, the heavyweight class, that was something he had no intention of doing. He would have to talk to Ranma about that later. He enjoyed being light weight and agile on his feet. Shinji was knocked out of his reverie when someone bopped him in the back of his head. He didn't even have to look back to know who it was.  
"What the heck were you thinking about?" Asuka smirked, hands on her hips.  
"Does it matter?" Shinji smirked.  
Asuka shrugged, "Not really,"  
She walked around the back of the bench to sit down next to Shinji, taking care to sit on the other end so not to be close to him. God forbid people thought they were together.  
"Where's Rei?" he asked.  
"How the heck should I know where Wonder Girl is," Asuka spat, "It's not like she's in class with me, us being in different majors and all,"  
Since Rei majored in Economics and Asuka in Physics, they never had the same classes. Asuka, although she did Physics, she took more advanced for than what Shinji was learning so she wasn't in his Physics class.  
Shinji held up his hands defensively, "All right. All right. Forget I asked,"  
They didn't wait long before Rei showed up. When she did, they all got up, ready to head for home.  
"Hey, aren't you going to carry my books?" Asuka said, noticing that her backpack of books were still on the bench. Her shoulders hurt from carrying the heavy backpack.  
"Oh, sorry," Shinji said, not giving it much thought.  
He walked over and picked up her backpack, throwing it casually over his shoulder. He also did the same for Rei, she seemingly having no problem allowing him to help her out.  
They headed home together.

"Shinji, a champion boxer?" Asuka's eyes widened as she sat around the dinner table, "That's gotta be one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time,"  
Asuka, Ranma, Akane, Rei, and Shinji were gathered around the dinner table. It was evening out and everyone was having dinner when Ranma brought that subject up.  
Ranma smirked, "Why, what's so funny about it?"  
"Just the thought of Shinji boxing is ridiculous," Asuka commented.  
"Shinji a powerful martial artist," Ranma stated, "What makes it so hard to believe that he'd be a powerful boxer? In a sense, it's kinda like what he does now except he doesn't hafta worry about kicking nor being kicked,"  
"That's true," Shinji noted, never thinking about that. He would only have to worry about punches.  
"And Shinji having to gain weight to reach a higher weight class, heh, I'd like to see that," Asuka stated, already envisioning a fat Shinji. "Um, speaking of which," Shinji began.  
"That's no problem," Ranma said, "There are weigh-ins before expected matches, to make sure Shinji's at the proper weight class before a fight. However, before he weigh-in, he'll simply eat around sixty pounds of food,"  
"Me? Eat sixty pounds of food!" Shinji's eyes widened.  
Ranma nodded, "Sure, It's not that hard,"  
Akane laughed, "Ranma, in case you haven't noticed, Shinji can't quite eat as much as you,"  
"That's for sure," Shinji added "Why, how much can you eat before you're fully?" Ranma asked curiously.  
"About five pounds," Shinji said, "And that includes most of it being liquid,"  
"Oh," Ranma said, "I didn't know that. I guess he'll hafta gain the weight in muscle then,"  
"I've been meaning to talk to you about that," Shinji said, "I don't want to gain weight. I like my weight where it is,"  
"What, you're worried that you'll grow big and slow?" Ranma smirked.  
Shinji nodded. Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Don't worry about it. There's ways around it. Since you can't eat that much before the match, we can cheat and use ki to make you seem heavier than what you really are,"  
"You can do that?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah. Either that or you want to do it the hard way and simply work out until you have muscles dense enough to bring you up to around two hundred pounds,"  
Shinji quickly shook his head, "No thanks,"  
He didn't like the thought of being a huge man. He was actually comfortable of his size and build, something he had never been years ago, before he met Ranma.  
"You won't grow big or nothing," Ranma said, "You'll be the same size as you are now but you'll simply be heavier,"  
"But wouldn't that make me slower?" he asked. "Um, I think you mistaken what I mean by gaining muscle," Ranma said, "I'm talking about you gaining muscle density, not muscle size. For example, how much do you think I weigh?"  
"Weigh?" Shinji asked, "Um, I dunno,"  
He regarded Ranma for a moment. Ranma was very muscular but nowhere near as muscular as competitive bodybuilders. He had the a very chiseled and tight body of that of a track athlete.  
"I'd say somewhere around two hundred and ten pounds or so, give or take five pounds," Shinji guessed, figuring he was around that weight.  
Ranma laughed, "Nope,"  
"A hundred and eighty five pounds is way too heavy," Asuka said, "He's probably around a hundred and eighty pounds,"  
"Nope," Ranma continued to grin, "My real weight is close to three hundred,"  
"Three hundred!" everyone even Akane said in shock.  
"Yeah," Ranma nodded, "Even though I'm about the same size as an average man of my height, my muscles are that much more dense than average muscles. Because they're much denser, that's why I'm much stronger and faster than an average human being,"  
"Um, perhaps it's because you're not even human anymore," Asuka smirked.  
Ranma ignored her and continued on, "You can choose from three options, but since you can't eat sixty pounds of food, then than means you only have two options, to either use ki to make yourself seem heavier than you really are, or actually build denser muscles,"  
"How long does it take to develop denser muscles?" Shinji asked.  
"Couple years," Ranma said, "Not too long. However, from point of view, I think it's best to do both options, just train your body to grow more densely packed muscles and use ki to keep your up your body weight to the necessary weight class in the meanwhile,"  
"How come Shinji's so interested in boxing all of a sudden?" Akane asked, "It's not that I have something against it or anything. It's just that this seemed rather sudden,"  
Ranma smiled, "Actually, it's two things. The first is that Shinji's always been interested in boxing. The second is that if he becomes Heavyweight Champion, a man named Boon will come outta hiding to challenge him. When he does, I can challenge this guy,"  
"Who is this guy?" Akane asked. Ranma shrugged, "Dunno. However, I heard he's really powerful. I wouldn't mind sparring against him. For a guy to be good enough to only challenge champion-  
type fighters, that must mean he'd be a good opponent to spar against," "And you want to fight him?" Asuka asked Ranma.  
"Yep,"

Shinji knocked on doorjamb of the kitchen as Akane was cleaning the dishes. It was fairly late at night and the dishes needed to be cleaned or else she risked the food caking up and solidifying to the plates.  
"You enjoy dinner?" Akane asked, not needing to turn around, knowing that it was him.  
"Yes, thank you," he said.  
"What can I do for you?"  
Shinji nervously asked, "Um, can you do me a favor?"  
"Sure, what is it?" she asked.  
"Ranma said that if I wanted to undergo training to becoming heavier, I could ask if you were willing to make me a special set of clothes," he said.  
"What do you mean a special set of clothes?"  
Shinji blushed slightly, feeling bad for asking Akane to do anything for him since she did more than enough already, "Well, basically, make an outfit where weight plates can be placed in 'em. Ranma said that I need to wear something that weighs around a hundred or so pounds on a regular basis,"  
Akane stopped what she was doing to face Shinji, "He said that?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, I really dunno exactly how to go about it so I figure a special vest or something where I can strap on weights would do the trick,"  
Akane smiled, "Actually, that's a rather smart idea. However, I think what Ranma was referring to is that you wear a backpack with a hundred pounds in it and wear it around with you all the time,"  
"He did?" Shinji said. He felt stupid for not having thought that himself.  
Akane nodded, "Yeah. However, if you want, I can make you an outfit, I don't mind,"  
"Really?" Shinji seemed hopeful. He didn't really care all that much for backpacks. The weight wouldn't be well distributed as that of a vest or such.  
"Sure, no problem,"  
The next day, Shinji woke up at around his usual time, somewhere within the vicinity of nine-thirty. When he did and noticed the time, he felt a bit disappointed in himself. He had wanted to wake up much earlier to try out jogging once again. However, it was understandable that he would wake up late since he went to sleep much later than yesterday, having stayed up half the night studying for the upcoming test.  
When he sat upright and proceeded to get out of the bed, he felt a great sensation of soreness around his leg.  
It only took him a moment to realize that his legs were sore from jogging yesterday. It seemed his body wasn't used to it and needed time to adjust. In a state of soreness, it would be best to work the body part out to get blood flowing in to it to help flush out the acid buildup that had occurred from yesterday.  
He took a minute stretching his legs, knowing that it would be an adequate substitute for now.  
Heading downstairs, he headed to the kitchen to fix himself some breakfast. Since he and Asuka and Rei went to college at different times, it was an unreasonable request to ask Akane to prepare breakfast a second time since she had already prepared it for everyone else earlier.  
When he entered the kitchen, he was surprised to see Ranma there, eating breakfast once again, having prepared it himself.  
"G'morning," Shinji said. Ranma eats so much, he thought.  
"Sleep well?" Ranma smirked. He didn't bother to mention that he had actually knocked on his door to see if he wanted to jog in the morning with him, disappointed when there was no answer.  
"I-I guess," Shinji answered. He walked over to one of the cupboards and took out a box of cereal. He enjoyed cereal for some odd reason. Perhaps because it was so convenient to prepare.  
Shinji sat down by Ranma and proceeded to eat his cereal, a bit envious of Ranma's giant breakfast.  
"You really like western breakfast, dontcha?" Shinji asked, all the while smirking. He regarded the plate of around five scrambled eggs, twenty sausage links and bacon strips, and generous serving of hash browns.  
Ranma nodded, "Yep. Oh yeah, before I forget, Akane finished preparing your outfit this morning. It's in the livingroom,"  
"It is?" Shinji was surprised. He got up from his seat and headed in to the livingroom. A moment later, he came back in to the kitchen, a vest in hand.  
"Whatcha think?" Ranma asked.  
Shinji regarded the vest for a bit. It was a sleeveless vest that looks similar to a bulletproof vest but less bulky. It only weight about a pound though.  
"You need to put in the weight plates yourself," Ranma commented.  
"You said I'm supposed to start off with around a hundred pounds," Shinji asked, "Do you think this can carry that much weight?"  
"It's made of Kevlar," Ranma smirked, "Of course it can. It can carry up to around five hundred pounds or so. Of course, I don't recommend trying to find out because I think that's even a lot of weight even for you,"  
"Man, I'm really going to be doing this, huh?" Shinji asked, "I'm really going to be undergoing this kinda training, huh?"  
Ranma nodded, "Well, sure, if you want. What you do is excellent for training. It'll make you very strong as well as increase the density of your muscles immensely,"  
"Do you do this?" he asked.  
Ranma proceeded to eat, "Of course, I do it all the time,"  
"You mean you're wearing one?" Shinji asked, "It looks like you're just wearing regular clothes,"  
Ranma nodded, "I am. These are just regular clothes I'm wearing,"  
"So how do you do it?" he asked.  
Ranma gestured toward the golden braces that were around his entire forearms. There was no real reason why someone would have it in the first place.  
"These arm braces weigh five hundred pounds each," Ranma said, "So I'm actually constantly sporting a thousand pounds every day. When I first started wearing these, which was around your age, they were very small and just covered the wrist. However, as I got older, I started wearing larger and larger ones until I eventually reached what I wear regularly now,"  
"A-a t-t-thousand pounds?" Shinji's eyes widened, "You've gotta be kidding me! You mean you weigh around thirteen hundred pounds?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yep,"  
"Then how the heck does the chair support you?" Shinji asked, "There's no way a regular chair can support your weight,"  
"The chairs in the house are reinforced," Ranma said, "So they can support the weight. However, whenever I go out to restaurants, I simply use ki to lighten my current weight at the time. These things are really useful because they actually curb your power so that it becomes a pleasant surprise when you do take it off and find out how much stronger you've gotten. In a sense, they're strength and speed inhibiters,"  
"Um," Shinji said, "What would that had meant if you had removed those so-  
called inhibitors when we were being attacked by Angels?"  
Ranma opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.  
"Jeez, I never thought of it. If I took them off, I'd probably be able to beat those Angels in one-on-one combat since removing them basically doubles my power," was all he could say, Shinji's jaw dropped to the floor.  
"Of course, the past is in the past," Ranma said, "And we'll never really know. However, things turned out okay. I stopped those Angels, at the cost of my life of course, but stopped them nonetheless. That's what matters,"  
Shinji was unable to say anything. He had come to expect the unexpected when the subject dealt with Ranma, but something like this was mind-numbing.  
"Anyway, carrying extra weight is very useful," Ranma continued, "Ryoga does the same also," "You mean the backpack?" Shinji asked, "How much does that weigh anyway?"  
Ranma replied, "About ten thousand pounds if I recall correctly, give or take a thousand pounds. All I know is that it's just shy of the upper weight limits of bridges. This allows him to walk over bridges without risking collapsing 'em. Anyway, the weight he and I carry increase as time goes back, and since we've been around for so long, it's only natural we carry heavy weights. I hate to admit it, but he's much stronger than me. The backpack isn't the only weight he carries,"  
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked, "Oh, you meant he umbrella?"  
Ranma nodded, "That, too. It weighs around a thousand now. Those crisscrossing bands that you find on his shins weighs around a hundred each leg and the braces around his wrists weigh as much as mine,"  
"J-jeez," Shinji gasped.  
Ranma smiled, "Don't worry. Over time, you'll be able to do that as well. It takes time. However, you're young and have plenty of it,"  
"I dunno about that," Shinji seemed skeptical, "That's a lot of weight, especially what Ryoga carries," "I know," Ranma said, "Sometimes, Ryoga's strength even impresses me,"  
"How much do you think he can lift?" Shinji had to ask.  
Ranma shrugged, "Dunno. But I know it's a lot of weight. We're talking about so much that the ground can't support the weight he can lift. The only person I can think off the top of my head that can physically lift more than him is that God-version of myself since his strength is infinite. However, despite that, he can only lift as much as when the ground below his feet allows,"  
"Whoa," Shinji said. The thought that Ryoga could lift more than the ground he was standing one was unimaginable.  
"Anyway, the point is is that if you do this kind of training, it'll increase muscle density," Ranma said, "That's the important part. It's a long process, but it gets easier with time. For now, we combine this and ki to keep your weight heavier than used to. However, after some time, we won't need to use ki anymore,"  
"Oh,"  
Ranma looked at the clock that hung on the wall, "Hey, shouldn't you be getting ready for classes?"  
Shinji's eyes widened. He looked at the clock and noticed that it was nearing ten-fifteen.  
"Oh man! I've gotta get going!" Shinji gasped. He quickly went about finishing his breakfast before heading for the door.  
"Thanks, Ranma," "No prob,"

Shinji shifted uncomfortably in his chair as he went about writing down the notes his teacher was writing down. What was causing this was the vest he was wearing. He had taken the vest with him to school and had gotten weight plates for them in between classes.  
Sumi, whom was sitting behind him, noticed this. She found it rather odd why he was doing so. He had been constantly shifting around throughout class.  
When class ended, Shinji slowly headed for the door. The extra hundred pounds he was carrying, although well distributed, make it much harder to move around naturally. His balance was completely out of whack and his muscles were straining to keep his legs stabilized whenever he was standing.  
Shinji slowly headed for the door.  
"Damn, I've gotta carry Asuka's and Rei's backpack as well," Shinji muttered under his breath, "That's gonna be a real pain,"  
He wondered what the two of them would think or say when he would split up halfway home so he could stop by Makunouchi Gym for his first day of training. He also wondered if he should keep the vest on or take it off while there. In his backpack he had a clean pair of shorts and t-shirt to change in to for whatever workout Ippo had in store for him.  
He felt excited at what was to come. He always liked boxing and would like to see how well he did. Although the thought of having to fight someone in a ring seemed intimidating, he was used to fighting Ranma and that should help make the stress of fighting in one-on-one combat seem less taxing.  
Sumi didn't bother to approach Shinji this time around, a bit worried that her boyfriend, Tou, would be waiting around and get the wrong idea. He was the jealous type. She didn't appreciate the fact that he bad mouthed Shinji, a man he didn't even know, judging him based merely on a brief encounter.  
Shinji emerged from 'D cluster' and in to the chill cool air, grateful to be outside and able to breath fresh air. For such a prestigious college, the buildings needed better ventilation.  
Shinji glanced toward the side and caught sight of the man named Tou. The man gave Shinji a dirty look. All Shinji did was grit his teeth, turn his gaze around, continuing on his way.  
"What would Ranma do in a situation like this?" he asked himself, "He'd just walk away like it was nothing. How the hell does he let stuff like that just slide so easily,"  
Shinji headed over to 'G Cluster' where he sat on the bench, waiting for Asuka and Rei.  
He proceeded to study his Physics textbook for the test that he would have tomorrow. Even though he was doing very well in class, it was because he studied on a consistent basis. In a sense, he was grateful that he had an hour to kill everyday while waiting for Rei and Asuka's classes to end. It allowed him uninterrupted study time. Ranma seemed to also promote Shinji studying, refusing to spar him anytime after ten at night, leaving him with plenty of free time afterwards.  
Before long, Asuka and Rei met up with him.  
"Upcoming test?" Rei asked softly. She noticed he tended to study more often when there was a test looming in the near future.  
Shinji closed his textbook and looked up, nodding, "Yeah, a Physics test,"  
"Bah, Physics is easy," Asuka said with a dismissive hand, "I aced it when I took it in college when I was in Germany back on the other world,"  
"If you took college already, why are you taking it again?" Shinji asked curiously.  
"Are you an idiot?" Asuka narrowed her eyes, "Didn't you ask me that a couple of weeks ago? It's because we live in a different world and any records of you or me or Wonder Girl here don't exist,"  
Shinji smirked, "I guess you have a point. I guess stating that you're an EVA pilot has no weight in this world,"  
Asuka narrowed her eyes at him. He was right and she hated him for it. She had mentioned that several times to schoolmates and they looked at her like she was some kind of lunatic.  
"Don't it annoy you that your life as an EVA pilot means nothing on this world?" Asuka asked him in an acidic voice.  
Shinji shrugged, "Not much anymore. It seems like you're still caught up on it, and that was, what, around four years ago,"  
"Hmph!" she turned away in disgust, "Something as important as being an EVA pilot should never be dismissed and should always be acknowledged. We helped save our world from disaster, afterall,"  
"Ranma saved a couple of worlds," Shinji smirked, "He doesn't seem to mind that no one acknowledges him for it,"  
That was something he always liked about Ranma. As long as Ranma knew for himself, that was all that mattered. What people thought of him or his exploits meant nothing to him.  
"Hmph!" Asuka said in annoyance.  
Shinji grabbed a hold of Asuka's and Rei's backpack, throwing them over his shoulder along with his own backpack. He staggered slightly for balance.  
"What the heck's wrong with you?" Asuka eyed him critically.  
"N-nothing," Shinji said, blushing slightly. The added weight made it all the more harder to keep a steady balance.  
Together, an encumbered Shinji walked as Asuka and Rei walked alongside him, totally unaware of the amount of effort he was exerting to continue walking.  
"I hope this is all worth it,"

Shinji entered Makunouchi Gym. It was only barely after four in the afternoon. By his side were Asuka and Rei. When he did, a lot of the gym patrons stopped what they were doing to check out the two cute girls that was with him. None of them recognized the three newcomers.  
"So, this is the gym you're going to be working out in?" Asuka regarded the interior. It looked rather dank and there were no females in the entire gym. It basically reeked of testosterone, of guys trying to become great fighters and building up their bodies to almost grossly chiseled definition.  
"How long will you be training here?" Rei asked softly. She looked over at the five punching bags by the right where they were all in use.  
All five guys there, noticing they were being observed by a girl, went about showing off, punching it with much more fervor, the chain suspending it from the rafters high above rattling loudly.  
"Hmph, they're showing off," Asuka said in annoyance. All guys did that. Whenever she happened to glance in any guy's direction, most of it unintentionally, they would suck in their stomachs and hold out their chests more, trying to make themselves seem more of a presence.  
Asuka and Rei regarded Ippo as emerged from the office by the back of the vast room and approach the three of them. Although they didn't know how, they noticed that this man was a lot older than his appearance indicated.  
I thought Ranma was the only guy that looked ageless, Asuka thought to herself.  
"Hello, M-Makunouchi-san," Shinji bowed courteously.  
"Please, call me Ippo," Ippo said with a smile. "O-okay," Shinji said.  
Ippo noticed the two girls, "Hi, I'm Ippo,"  
Both girls greeted him politely, even Asuka, and introduced themselves. Over time, Asuka had somehow become grown much more respectful of adults, more so than people her age. Perhaps it was because there was a great sense of wisdom found in them that came with experience and long life.  
"Are you girls here to join as well?" Ippo asked, a bit hopeful. He wouldn't mind having more females around. It would draw in more potential trainees.  
Asuka shook her head, "No. We were just passing by and just wanted to see,"  
"Are the three of you together?" he asked.  
"Yeah," Shinji said, "We all live together with Ranma. He basically takes care of us,"  
"Oh, you know Ranma, huh?" Ippo smiled.  
"You know him?" Asuka asked, a bit interested.  
"Yeah, we met a while ago," he shrugged, "But we don't talk much. He's a really nice guy,"  
Asuka let out a snort, "Ranma, nice? I dunno about that,"  
She had mixed assumptions of Ranma. True, he was a nice guy at heart, but for a guy that was generally nice, he could be outright annoying, especially when he teased her all the time. However, over time, she knew that if she didn't provoke him, he would not provoke her.  
"Are you girls going to stay and watch?" Ippo asked. He gazed around and noticed several of the patrons working more strenuous than usual.  
"Um," Asuka thought for a moment.  
"I can't," Rei said softly, "I have some homework I need to finish,"  
"Oh," Ippo said. He turned toward Asuka, "How about you?"  
"Um, no. I'm gonna go as well," she replied. She didn't want to end up walking home alone with Shinji. She would much rather be with Wonder Girl than Baka-  
Shinji.  
Asuka and Rei headed for the door.  
"Don't worry, Shinji, I won't wait up," Asuka smirked at him in a dry voice.  
"I wouldn't expect it any other way," Shinji smirked back, used to Asuka's antics. She seemed to still hold hostilities toward him, but he had gotten used to it. It wasn't that she hated him, but rather found him annoying, kind of like the way she believed she found Ranma annoying.  
"Well, feel free to visit," Ippo said warmly.  
"Perhaps," Asuka shrugged, not giving it much thought. She preferred not to be around Shinji more than used to if need be.  
Rei and Asuka said their goodbyes and left, leaving Shinji and Ippo alone.  
Ippo gestured toward the extra backpacks Shinji was carrying, "What's with the extra backpacks?"  
"Damn, I forgot to give it back to 'em," Shinji said, quickly heading out the door to catch them. Stepping outside, he realized that it was too late, that both girls were already long gone.  
Ippo chuckled, "It seems like you're gonna hafta bring both of them back home with you.  
Shinji scratched his head, wondering if Rei was going home to do homework, how would she back able to without her backpack. "I better not give myself a headache trying to figure it out," Shinji commented.  
"Well, are you ready for some training?" Ippo asked, "I don't know how far along you are with martial arts training, but I'd like to start you off real easy to gauge what kind of level you're at initially,"  
"Okay,"

Shinji emerged from the locker room, clad in some sweat pants and a t-shirt, perfect training attire. Underneath the attire was the hundred pound vest he had chosen to keep on. Ranma had said that he was expected to wear it all the time, even in sleep so it was best to keep to it.  
He looked around the gym, wondering what he should be doing. "Shinji," Ippo called his name. He was by the open area by the back left of the gym. In one of his hands was a jump-rope.  
Shinji approached Ippo. He took hold of the jump-rope.  
"Here," Ippo said, "Just do jump-rope for now. It helps build agility as well as endurance,"  
"Um, okay," Shinji said.  
He looked at the jump-rope in his hands. He had rarely ever did such an exercise. He didn't even recall doing it much when he was in high school and never did it once since he came to this world. He was probably really rusty.  
"How long do I do it for?" he asked curiously.  
"Ten minutes'll be fine," Ippo said, "I'm gonna go over by the punching bag and help some of the new guys out. I'll be back later,"  
"O-okay," Shinji said, a bit disappointed. He would have liked to have Ippo giving him his full attention in his training. I guess that'll never be the case, not with some many people around here, Shinji thought.  
He attempted to jump-rope. He didn't manage to get more than ten hops before he ended up tripping over the rope, falling to the ground and becoming tangled. The weight of the vest proved too cumbersome.  
Several of the gym patrons started laughing when they noticed him.  
Shinji blushed a deep shade of red as he proceeded to untangle himself. As he did so, Ippo approached him again, a smirk on his lips.  
"Um, I-I'm really rusty," Shinji said in an embarrassed tone, giving him a very meek smile.  
Ippo laughed, "Don't worry about it. I had trouble the first time around. Heck, I ended up in the same predicament as you,"  
"You did?"  
Ippo nodded, "Yeah. Yes, it's embarrassing but you'll get used to it,"  
"I dunno if I'll ever get used to being embarrassed," Shinji said. Ippo give him a meek smile, "Not that. I mean getting used to doing jump-rope,"  
"Oh,"

Shinji came back home at around seven in the evening, his entire body aching all over.  
He hadn't bothered changing out of his training clothes and reeked of sweat. Not one minute after getting home, Asuka came down the stairs, an annoyed look on her face, "It's about time you came home. I couldn't do my homework until you came home,"  
She grabbed the backpack from him and headed back up the stairs.  
"You're welcome," Shinji said wryly. Damn, if she needed it so badly, she could had come back to the gym and got it herself, he thought.  
Rei approached him a minutes later, as he was dropper her and his backpack off in the livingroom.  
"Thank you," she said in a soft voice, picking the backpack up off the floor.  
"Oh, no problem," Shinji smiled, glad that at least someone was grateful. He doubted Asuka would ever be grateful toward him. Of all the times he had carried her backpack, not once had she thanked him, at least not without giving him a rather dismissive thanks.  
Shinji proceeded upstairs to his room to get a clean pair of clothes so that he could take a shower and wash the day's workout out of his system and off his body. As he was heading up the stairs, he bumped in to Ranma as he was on his way down.  
"Ah, you're back," Ranma smiled, "How was the training?"  
"I'm not too sure what to think," Shinji commented, "All I did was jump-rope and sit-ups,"  
Ranma thought for a moment, "Ah, he's helping you build up stamina and endurance as well as basic footing. If I were to train someone new, that's probably the first thing I would do. Did you do anything else?"  
Shinji shook his head, "No. I didn't do anything past that. Jump-rope was almost impossibly hard,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Lettme guess, it was because you were wearing that weight vest that kept bogging you down?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
"Don't worry," Ranma smiled, "You'll get used to it. Just don't take it off. Eventually, your body'll get used to the added weight,"  
"I dunno," Shinji sighed, gesturing, "It seems awfully hard to do even simply things with this vest on. How long does it take before I'll get used to it?"  
"About a month or so," Ranma said, "Perhaps a bit more,"  
Shinji face-faulted, "Damn,"  
"Hey, it's hard work," Ranma laughed, "But in the long run, it'll vastly improve you. You won't see it right away, but when you take off the vest for the first time, you'll be pleasantly surprised,"  
"I'm supposed to keep the vest on all the time?" Shinji asked, "What about when I'm taking a shower or something?"  
"Only take it off when you have to," Ranma said, "Like for stuff such as taking a shower or perhaps washing it every here and there. Other than that, don't take it off,"  
"O-okay,"  
"Anyway, now that you're home, are you ready to spar?" Ranma smirked.  
"S-spar?" Shinji's eyes widened, "I-I just got back from training at the gym!"  
"So?" he said, "Training at the gym is different than training here. Ippo's in charge of training you in terms of becoming a boxer. I'm training you to put weight on you. In a sense, I need to train you to counter Ippo's training,"  
"C-counter Ippo's training? What do you mean?" Shinji was confused.  
"Ippo's training is geared toward becoming a great boxer, but in the process it also causes weight loss and fat reductions," Ranma said, "I hafta counteract that and actually make you gain weight. Sparring is the best way. If you don't spar, especially with the vest on, your weight is going to plummet and you're going to drop weight classes, something that we don't want happening,"  
Shinji was silent. He had no idea that he would be undergoing such harsh training. He was still sore from jogging the other day and now he had to spar against Ranma after having become more sore from training with Ippo? This was too much.  
Ranma sensed Shinji's plight and said, "I know, this seems very very hard. It is, but given some time, you'll get used to this. It's kind of like how it was when I first started training you. You were probably in as much pain then as you now. However, over time, your body gets used to it,"  
"I guess you have a point,"

Shinji flopped on to the bed, more tired than he had ever been in his life. His entire body ached badly. His aches even ached. It was only ten in the evening but Shinji felt so tired that he could probably sleep clear in to next week.  
"Damn, and I have a Physics test to study for," he said, muttering under his breath. He was prepared for the upcoming test, having been studying all the time, but it didn't allow him the freedom to actually skip on studying on the day before the test.  
Languidly, Shinji got back up out of his bed and walked over to his desk. He sat down in his chair, only to have it break under the weight of Shinji and the extra hundred pounds he had on. The chair was old and needed to be replaced long ago anyway.  
Shinji ended up staring at the ceiling for several long minutes. Afterwards, he started laughing.  
"How the heck do you get used to something like this?"  
Sumi glanced around her first class, Calculus, her ten-thirty class, wondering where Shinji was. If he was sick, then that meant he would miss the upcoming Physics class later in the day. He would miss taking the test.  
At around an half hour in to the class, she saw Shinji enter the classroom. Even from where she was sitting, she noticed the dark rings under his eyes. He must've been up real late studying, she thought.  
Since this was college, the professor didn't bother to scold Shinji for being late. Whether or not Shinji choose to come to class didn't really matter to the professor, quite a contrast to how high school life was. There was a much greater sense of freedom in terms of going to classes.  
Upon sitting down in his seat, Shinji reached in to his backpack and took out his notebook, robotically copying down whatever he saw was on the blackboard.  
As he did so, after around five minutes of copying, Shinji placed his arms and head on the desks, falling deep asleep.  
"Shinji," Sumi said in a soft voice.  
Shinji stirred slightly. The first class had ended and they were expected to head down the hall to their next class which would start in fifteen minutes.  
Sumi gave him a gentle nudge.  
"Huh?" Shinji yawned, opening his eyes. He looked up, rubbing his eyes as regarded Sumi for a second, "W-where am I?"  
"Class just ended," she said.  
"Oh," he said. He began packing up his books and tried to get up. To his surprise, he was unable to. His legs had fallen completely asleep and refused to move.  
Sumi looked at Shinji curiously, "Something the matter?"  
"Um, m-my legs fell asleep," Shinji blushed as he looked at his legs. He knew they were asleep. He felt a tingling prickling sensation running up and down both legs. It was because of the way he sleep leaning forward on to the desk which had cut off circulation to his legs.  
Sumi smirked, "You're kidding me, right?"  
Shinji tried to get up again but found it futile. Sumi noticed this.  
"Hm, it seems you're right," she commented.  
What would Ranma do in this situation, Shinji though to himself. Hm, if his legs were asleep, he'd probably push a few pressure points to wake them of. Of course, since I'm not Ranma, I have no idea what pressure points I'm supposed to push.  
"Um, I guess I'll just sit here and wait until they wake back up," Shinji gave a nervous laugh.  
"O-okay," she said. She wondered if she should stay and wait for him. However, since they barely knew each other, there was nothing obligating her to do so. "Um, I guess I'll see you in class then," she said after a moment.  
"H-hopefully," Shinji gave a meek smile, "Provided my legs decide to wake up,"  
Sumi giggled.  
"So, you study for the test?" she asked, figuring that since she had fifteen minutes to kill, she might as well pass her time talking to Shinji since while she was there.  
Shinji was pounding on his legs when she asked the question. He stopped to look at her, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What was that?"  
Sumi giggled again. She took a moment to clear her through and repeat the question, "Did you study for the Physics test?"  
Shinji nodded, "Y-yeah. I studied until three in the morning. That's why I kind of overslept and came to class late. I didn't even get a chance to eat breakfast because I was in such a rush,"  
"It's bad if you skip on breakfast," she commented. She immediately thought to herself that she was some kind of nag. Shinji was his own person, afterall. Whether he chose to skip breakfast or not was his own prerogative.  
"I guess I'll go get some food later," Shinji said, "As soon as my legs wake up. Um, did you study?"  
Sumi nodded, "Yeah. I studied until midnight before I finally passed out and fell asleep. I was studying since I got back to the dorms at around five,"  
"Y-you were studying all day?" Shinji asked, "That's a lot longer than me. I only started at around eleven until three in the morning,"  
"How come you started studying so late?" she asked, "I mean, if you don't mind my asking that is,"  
Shinji thought about it for a moment, remembering what Ranma said. It was best to not let anyone know what he was doing. Having people know would prompt him to want to reveal his progress and that should be kept secret until an absolute must. As to why Ranma wanted this Shinji had yet to know.  
"Um, I guess I let it slip," Shinji said in a meek voice, embarrassed with himself, "I lost track of time,"  
"Oh," she said, not really knowing what to think. She figured Shinji wouldn't do something like that and studied regularly like she did. Then again, it was wrong of her to assume things anyway.  
Shinji found himself able to move his legs slightly, "Hm, it seems like my legs are waking back up,"  
"That's good to hear,"  
Before long, Shinji was able to get up out of his seat, even though it was under much effort, his legs very sore and Shinji having forgotten that he was also wearing an additional hundred pound vest.  
"Careful," Sumi grabbed one of his arms, to steady him, figuring he was going to trip over his own feet.  
Shinji blushed a deep shade of red when he noticed Sumi hold her. He had never really been close to a girl before so he didn't really know how to react. Sure, Asuka and Rei were girls but they didn't count. The closeness he was to Sumi and him very uncomfortable.  
"Um, I-I'm okay," he said, taking a step away, forcing his legs to work and not give out under him.  
"You sure?" she asked, totally oblivious to Shinji's discomfort.  
Shinji nodded quickly, "Um, y-you g-go on ahead. I-I'll meetcha in class,"  
"Are you sure?" she asked.  
"Y-yeah," he said, "I-I'll be fine,"  
"Okay," she said, "Um, I guess I'll see you in class,"  
After a moment, she turned around and left the class, leaving Shinji by his lonesome. Shinji sighed in relief, glad Sumi was no longer nearby. He couldn't help but admit that Sumi was a pretty girl but considering she was in a relationship with that guy, Tou, he needed to keep his distance. Besides, he wasn't good with girl and preferred to be at a comfortable distance from them, at least until he felt more confident with himself.  
Shinji waited a good five minutes, leaning against a desk for support, before his legs finally woke up completely. He moved them around a bit, testing to make sure that he had full use of them. When he was satisfied that he did, he grabbed his backpack and proceeded for the door.  
"Man, I wonder if I can really get used to this like Ranma said,"

Shinji entered his second class for the day just as it was beginning. He sat down in the only open desk, yawing as he did so. Although he was used to going on around five or four hours of sleep a day, he wasn't used to be physically tired from all that strenuous training he did yesterday.  
He rested his head on his arms and promptly closed his eyes.  
From the other side of the class room, Sumi smirked as she saw him do this.  
That Shinji is quite a strange guy, she thought. She couldn't help but find him mildly intriguing, despite the fact that her boyfriend, Tou, had called him a boring loser. Hmph, it's not like Tou even knows what kind of guy Shinji is anyway.  
"I'll sleep through this class," Shinji yawned, "Afterwards, I'll grab a quick bite to eat for breakfast and be wide awake and ready for Physics after this class,"

Shinji stretched as he emerged from the classroom and in to the hallway, a bit satisfied with how he did on the Physics class. Since he was done with the test, he was allowed to leave. He placed his backpack on the floor, wanting to stretch a bit before heading out. Since he had a good hour and a half left before he needed to meet up with Asuka and Rei, he had much time to kill.  
He had expected to do badly on the test but it seemed he was well prepared for it, most of the questions pertaining to what he had studied the hour during the time he was waiting for Rei and Asuka.  
"Shinji, how'd you do?" a fellow classmate asked, a young man around Shinji's age if not younger.  
Shinji smiled, "I think I did okay. I missed that last part of the final question, but I think I at least got some points in terms of partial credit,"  
"I bombed mine," the classmate said, "I had no idea how to do the second question so I skipped it,"  
"S-skipped it? The second question is worth a third of your test grade," Shinji gasped.  
The classmate gave a meek smile, "I know. That's why I said I bombed it,"  
"Um, b-better luck next time," Shinji said, not really knowing what to say. He felt a bit awkward since tests grades were based on a curved. If he did real well on a test, that meant anyone that did badly would be penalized. Shinji did average in all of his classes but excelled in Physics and was considered a curve-breakers. To an extent, it kind of embarrassed him that he did so well in Physics and was one of the people breaking the curve. Sumi emerged from the classroom. When Shinji noticed her, he didn't feel all that bad anymore since she got better grades than him and would also be categorized as a curve-breaker as well. Misery loved company, afterall.  
"H-how'd you do, S-Sumi?" one of the boys asked her, figuring it was a good chance to strike up a conversation with her. Although everyone knew that she had a boyfriend, that didn't mean they couldn't talk to her.  
"I think I did okay," she stated.  
"Isn't that what you said during your last test and ended up getting a hundred?" another boy commented, smirking.  
"I guess," she gave a meek reply.  
Shinji didn't bother saying anything. She probably got a hundred, he thought to himself. He picked up his backpack and threw it over his shoulders. Sumi noticed Shinji as he headed down the hallway, disappearing around the hallway. She felt a bit disappointed because she had wanted to ask him how he think he did. He had looked a bit worried going in to the test and she was curious if he had been able to keep everything together and do well.  
Shinji emerged from 'D Cluster' and in to pouring rain. Because there was an alcove in front of the entrance, he didn't have to worry about getting wet unless he stepped out from there.  
Damn, it was nice out when I got here, he thought. But then again, it did look like it was going to rain when I came out to get a quick bite to eat before the test.  
Shinji looked at his watch.  
"An hour and twenty five minutes to kill," he said to himself, "What should I do?"  
He contemplated going to the campus cafeteria and staying there and studying until he was expected to meet up Asuka and Rei. However, he chose against it. There was no need to study right away, especially right after a test.  
Shinji chose to sit down on the ground, figuring it was best to just rest and wait. He could use the free time to simply meditate. He hadn't done that in a while.  
Ranma says it's good to meditate more often now that I'm carrying all that extra weight, he thought. Of course, it's kinda embarrassing but I guess there's nothing much I can do about it. Besides, Ranma seems to have no problem meditating in public so neither should I,"  
Shinji got in to an Indian-style sitting position, making sure he was out of everyone's way in case they wanted to leave or enter the building. He closed his eyes and proceeded to clear his mind, willing his body to heal itself faster. He was still very sore, afterall.  
Several student from his class emerged from his building, finished with the test. They all stopped to ask Shinji what he was doing but was ignored.  
"Damn, what a weirdo," one of them commented.  
Shinji opened one of his eyes and regarded the student's back as he walked away, a bit of an annoyed look on his face. Let it go, Shinji told himself.  
After a moment, he closed his eyes again and went about meditating.  
Sumi was the last to emerge from the building and was surprised to see Shinji there.  
"Whatcha doing?" she asked curiously. She walked around him and noticed that his eyes were closed.  
Whoa, this guys is doing some kind of mediation or something, she thought, feeling embarrassed for having bothered him.  
Sumi looked out toward the pouring rain and sighed, a bit angry at herself for not having brought an umbrella. She walked out a bit to gaze around, wondering if her boyfriend was around waiting for her. She noticed that he wasn't there.  
She glanced at her watch. She had to wait around forty five minutes before her housemate would get out of class. What was she to do?  
She looked over at Shinji again. Man, that's kind of weird what he's doing, she thought. To her, it seemed like a thing a weirdo would do.  
She stood there in total and awkward silence, for a good fifteen minutes, wishing for the rain to let up. She felt very awkward just standing there, knowing that Shinji was meditating. What does one do around someone that was meditating?  
After fifteen more minutes, the silence was driving Sumi nuts. She walked over to where Shinji was and was about to nudge him to get his attention but was startled when Shinji said something.  
"Yes?" he asked, opening his eyes, turning his attention to her. "H-how'd you know I was behind you?" she asked.  
Shinji had this confused and excited look on his face as he said, "Um, I really dunno how to explain it. I somehow did," It was an odd sensation but for some odd reason, he had definitely felt Sumi's presence when she approached him and got close to him. He didn't sense her before but knew she had been there the whole time. It wasn't until she actually came in closer did he sense her. It was as if she had entered an invisible aura he was emanating and that allowed him to know exactly where she was in reference to him.  
Shinji got up to his feet, gritting his teeth as he felt needle-like sensations traveling up and down his legs. His legs had been in the process of falling asleep.  
"I think I just learned something," Shinji said to himself, loud enough for Sumi to hear.  
"What?"  
"Um, n-nevermind," he gave a meek smile.  
There was a bit of an awkward silence before Sumi spoke.  
"How long do you think before the rain let's up?" she asked.  
Shinji looked up at the sky. Damn, what did Ranma teach me, he thought. There was a sign in the clouds to look for that gave an indication of when the rain would stop but I can't remember what it is.  
"I dunno," he said after a moment, realizing that he can't remember what Ranma taught him. It was hard remembering all the stuff Ranma had taught him over the years.  
"So, how'd you do on the test?" she asked.  
Shinji didn't get a chance to answer her question when her boyfriend, Tou, rounded the corner of the building and entered the alcove.  
"T-Tou," Sumi was surprised. Tou looked at his girlfriend and Shinji. He easily recognized that it was the same skinny twerp that she was talking to the other day.  
"What do you think you're doing?" Tou asked, the question more geared toward Shinji than Sumi.  
"We were just talking," Sumi said, "No need to jump to conclusions,"  
"Stay away from her!" Tou sneered at Shinji.  
Before Shinji could react, Tou shoved him. Because of his half-asleep legs and the fact that he was encumbered by the weighted vest, Shinji lost his balance, tripping over his own feet, falling backwards where he ended up slamming in to the entrance door and falling to the ground.  
Shinji grimaced at the pain that was shooting up his arms since he had used them to cushion his face. The weighted vest made the fall fell that much more painful.  
"Tou, what the heck did you have to do that for?" Sumi shouted at him. Tou was a nice guy from time to time but he had to do something about that temper of his.  
Tou smirked, "I just gave him a shove. Who'dve thought he'd be so clumsy as to trip over his own feet and fall like that,"  
Before Sumi could do anything, Tou grabbed her hand and almost half dragged her away, "C'mon, let's get outta here,"  
"S-sorry," was all Sumi could said to Shinji before she was dragged off and disappeared around the corner of 'D Cluster'.  
Shinji got up in to a sitting position, very angry with himself, nearing the brink of tears. "Damnit!" punched the ground, his fist actually becoming embedded in it, too angry to even notice this.  
He rubbed his eyes, getting to his feet. He brushed the dust from his outfit. He looked down and notices that his shirt had become ripped, when he tumbled to the ground.  
He took several deep breaths, willing himself to calm down. A good thirty minutes elapsed before he felt reasonably clear-headed.  
"I-it's n-not worth it," he told himself in a calm voice, "I-I-I'm above that,"  
Shinji looked at his watch. He should head on over to 'G Cluster' now since Asuka and Rei would be showing up there shortly. There was an alcove by the building entrance where he could wait while out of the rain.  
He grabbed his backpack and headed out.

Shinji entered the gym alone. Once again, he had forgotten to give back Asuka and Rei their backpack. Before he realized it, they were long gone. Since the rain had stopped not too long ago, there was no need for both girls to go in to the gym to seek shelter from the rain.  
Ippo was there to greet him. He noticed the cuts on Shinji's arms and the partially ripped shirt.  
"What happened? Did you get in a fight or something?" Ippo asked curiously.  
"Um, k-kinda," Shinji said, "A person shoved me and I fell," He had chosen to tell Ippo the truth where he otherwise lied to Asuka and Rei when they asked, a walling them that he tripped.  
"A bully?"  
Shinji thought about it for a moment, "Not really. I guess it's just an isolated incident. I kinda feel bad that I didn't do anything,"  
"Don't worry about it," Ippo said, "What happened?"  
"A guy thought I was hitting on his girlfriend," Shinji said after a moment, "I wasn't. She's in my class and we were just talking about a test we just had. Anyway, he jumped to conclusions and shoved me and I fell,"  
"Well, As long as you're okay, that's what matters," Ippo said.  
"How would you had dealt with a situation like that?" Shinji asked.  
"You mean when I was your age?" Ippo said, "I used to get picked on bullies when I was in high school. They stopped picking on my when I took up boxing though,"  
"Y-you used to get picked on?" Shinji was shocked. Never in his life would he had believed a person as good a fighter as Ippo would get picked on.  
Ippo chuckled, "Not picked on either. I used to get beat up. I mean really beat up. Bloody nose and everything. However, over time, I got used to it,"  
"What happened after you become a boxer? Did you ever beat them up for what they did?" Shinji asked.  
Ippo shook his head, "No. I never got in to boxing to get revenge. When I actually became good enough to actually beat them up, and when the opportunity presented itself, I never bothered. It just wasn't worth it,"  
"Wasn't worth it, huh?" Shinji said, "That seems to be the same motto Ranma uses,"  
Ippo smiled warmly, "It's a good motto,"  
"It gets really frustrating," Shinji complained, "I know I could've taken him..."  
"So? If you knew, then what's there to prove?" Ippo said, "You're a better man for walking away,"  
"Hmph, I sure don't feel it," Shinji muttered.  
"Don't worry about it," Ippo said, "Just let it slide. You'll understand over time,"  
"Perhaps," Shinji shrugged.  
"Didja bring a change of clothes?" Ippo asked.  
Shinji nodded.  
"All right, why dontcha get changed," he smiled, "Since it seems like you have some frustrations to vent out, we cut down on the stamina and endurance training. You can use the punching bag to vent for a bit,"  
"Really? T-thanks," Shinji seemed happy. He had been wanting to hit a punching bag since that incident. He had the urge to punch something continuously.  
Eagerly, Shinji headed for the locker room.  
Shinji struggled his way through doing jump-ropes, the vest continuing to encumber him. However, he noticed that he had improved ever-so-slightly. Of course, he made a complete fool of himself when he ended up getting entangled in the rope like before but it didn't seem to bother him as much, not even when several gym patrons laughed at him. Perhaps it was that he noticed the improvement in himself that made it not all that bothersome.  
Shinji struggled through doing sit-ups without too much trouble. The vest didn't prove that much a hindrance, the weights mostly resting around his waist since he was lying on the ground.  
"You've improved on the jump-rope," Ippo commented, "You did better today than yesterday,"  
"T-thanks," Shinji blushed, surprised that Ippo noticed it.  
"Well, let's get you on to the punching bag," Ippo smiled, knowing the young man was eager to do this exercise.  
Shinji followed Ippo over to the punching bags, only one of them not being used at the moment. "Since you've trained in martial arts," Ippo said, "I assume Ranma taught you the proper motion and form for certain punches,"  
"Like what kind of punches?" Shinji asked. "Like hook punches and straights and jabs and such," Ippo replied.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, he taught me those," He even felt confident that he had excellent form when punching. He had spent quite a bit of time simply practicing punching, Ranma constantly observing him and making tiny adjustments to his form until it was what Ranma deemed textbook perfect.  
Ippo gestured, "Give the punching bag a few test punches. It doesn't matter what kind of punches. I'd just like to see how good your form is,"  
"Um, okay," Shinji said, feeling nervous from knowing that he was being evaluated. He had grown used to Ranma evaluating his punches but never someone other than him.  
Shinji gave the punching back several perfectly executed combination of punches. He put in a moderate amount of strength behind his punches but was a bit surprised when he noticed the bag didn't sway all that much.  
"H-how's that?" Shinji asked, breathing slightly heavily. Punching a punching bag was a rather invigorating and strenuous exercise.  
Ippo was very impressed, "Your punches have perfect form,"  
"T-thanks," Shinji smiled.  
"All right, now that you're warmed up, why not give the punching bag a few of your strongest punches," Ippo said, walking around an behind the bag, holding his hands against it to help prevent it from swaying too much.  
"Um," Shinji wondered if he should mention that he was wearing a vest that was seriously curbing his power since he was using most of it to hold the weight. When the image of Ranma telling him to keep it secret entered his mind, he chose not to tell him, "Okay, I'll give it a try,"  
Shinji cocked his arm back and stood in a traditional karate stance. He then stepped forward, executing a perfect right straight punch right at the bag, using all of his might.  
His punch barely moved the bag.  
"Um, w-was that your hardest?" Ippo asked.  
Shinji blushed, very embarrassed.  
Ippo scratched the back of his head. I don't get it, he thought. Shinji has a lot of potential and I know it. However, his speed and strength are below average at the moment. "What kind of training does Ranma give you?" Ippo had to ask.  
"Um, at the moment, we just spar," Shinji answered truthfully. He didn't bother to divulge the fact that he was wearing a weighted vest underneath his clothes.  
Ippo had a stumped look on his face, "Hm, I don't get it,"  
"Is something the matter?" Shinji asked.  
"Well, nothing really," Ippo said, "It's just that I'm a bit confused as to why you're at the level that you're at. At the moment, you're actually below average in terms of strength and speed for a person of your build and size," Shinji gritted his teeth. He really wanted to tell Ippo the truth. However, Ranma said it was best to keep it a secret if possible. "I dunno," Shinji gave a meek smile.  
Ippo shrugged, "Well, no matter. It's nothing to worry about. I definitely see potential in you. It'll probably take a bit of time, but that's nothing to worry about,"  
Shinji smiled, "Yeah, just give me some time, you'll see an improvement soon enough,"  
"Well, at the moment, since we know where you stand in terms of speed and strength, we're going to concentrate on building up your endurance," Ippo said, "What I mean is that we need to do stuff like jogging and jump-rope and such.  
"J-jogging?" Shinji asked, wondering if it would be possible to jog with that much added weight. However, he wasn't going to give up unless he gave it a try.  
"You don't have to worry about that," Ippo said, "For the next month, we'll just concentrate on building up your stamina. We'll work mostly at doing jump-  
rope and eating a proper and nutritious diet to get you in to excellent shape for when real training begins,"  
"Diet? But ain't I supposed to gain weight?"  
Ippo nodded, "Yes. However, I'll leave Ranma to do that. He'll probably have you emulate whatever diet he has since he is in excellent shape,"  
"So what would you like me to do?"  
Ippo walked over to the other side of the gym, Shinji following him. He picked up a jump-rope that was hanging on a hook by the wall. He smiled as he held it forward for him to take.  
"Jump-rope, huh?" Shinji asked, wondering if he would eventually come to dread doing jump-rope.  
"Yep,"

Shinji entered the house at around six-thirty, around half hour earlier than last time. He had stopped training at six but it had taken him that much longer to trek home, his legs dead tired and reluctant to move in the motion his brain had been telling them to.  
"So tired," Shinji told himself, yawning as he dropped both Asuka's and Rei's backpack by the foot of the stairs, heading in to the kitchen where he flopped down on the couch. When he realized that he was all sweaty and such, he languidly twisted over so that he could allow himself to fall off and on to the floor, not wanting to dirty the couch.  
Shinji closed his eyes, knowing that deep sleep would soon bestow him. He didn't care that falling asleep now would mess up his sleep schedule completely. He was too tired to care.  
"Can't go to sleep now," he heard Ranma's voice.  
Shinji opened his eyes, "I'm so tired,"  
Ranma grinned, "I know. Just give it some time. You've only been at it for two days,"  
"God, I've gotta keep this up for a month before I get used to it?" Shinji groaned, "I don't think I can do it,"  
"I thought the same when I was going through what you did," Ranma commented.  
"Still,"  
"Where'd you get those scratches?" Ranma asked, "Y'get in a fight or somethin'?"  
A bit embarrassed, Shinji said, "Something like that. A guy pushed me and I fell," "Why didntja beat the crap outta him?" Ranma asked.  
"Huh? But you said that I should never get in to a fight if it could be avoided," Shinji's eyes darted toward Ranma.  
"Oh yeah," Ranma gave a meek laugh, "I forgot, I did say that. Nevermind,"  
Shinji sighed. Ranma was so unpredictable.  
"C'mon, get up," Ranma said, all the while grinning, "You're done with training at the gym, now you hafta train at the dojo,"  
"D-do I hafta?" Shinji whined.  
Ranma shrugged, "Fine, if you don't want to, then don't," He felt a bit disappointed in Shinji. He believed Shinji was better than that, that he wouldn't allow something like a few aches and tiredness to prevent his long-term commitment to improving his mind and body.  
Shinji groaned as he sat up in to an upright position.  
Ranma smirked, "There y'go. I figure you're not the type that would give up. You're not the same person you used to be a few years ago,"  
"Ugh,"

Shinji passed out in to deep sleep before he made it in to the house after his hour and a half long sparring session with Ranma. They had been sparring ever since Shinji ate some dinner after having come home. Oddly enough, Shinji was surprised to find a unique meal had been prepared for him that varied quite a bit from the rest of the household. It seemed Ranma didn't need to be asked and had already known that Shinji needed to alter his eating habits. He had requested Akane to prepare him a special meal.  
It was only around nine when Ranma said that it was enough, having realized that Shinji had ran out of steam over an hour ago but continued to push on through sheer will.  
Ranma had emerged from the dojo about a half hour later, having stayed to do some katas to wind down. When he did, he glanced right by the exit where he saw Shinji fast asleep.  
He laughed.  
Without saying a word, he crouched down and picked him up, Shinji not stirring one bit as Ranma threw him over his shoulder and carried him toward the house.  
"Fast asleep, huh?" Akane asked. She had been watching some late evening television in the livingroom, figuring it was a good way to relax before going to sleep.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, didn't even make it in to the house before falling asleep,"  
"He's getting pretty good, huh?" Akane asked, "Back then, you used to carry him in to the house because he was constantly getting knocked out. It seems like that's not the case,"  
"Whatcha talkin' about? I can knock him out as easily now as back then" Ranma smirked, "However, the sparring we did isn't based on who wins. It's all just to train him to get used to reacting to incoming attacks. I'm only attacking him with the same speed as an average person. All I need to do is speed up my attacks and it'll feel like he's learning from square one again,"  
"When do you plan on speeding up your attacks?" Akane asked.  
Ranma shrugged, "In about a month or so. Right now, it's like he's starting all over again since he's so bogged down with that weight vest you made for him,"  
"It's slowing him down that much, huh?"  
Ranma shrugged again, "Yes and no. He is significantly slower now that before he started wearing it. However, little does he know that he's actually faster wearing it now than when he first started training,"  
"He's come a long way from the frail meek boy he used to be," Akane smiled warmly.  
"Yep,"

Shinji woke up in a world of pain.  
"God," he muttered. He turned his head to look at the clock. It was around eight-thirty, indicating that Shinji had slept for almost twelve hours.  
He groaned as he sat upright. He yawned several times as he remained in that upright position for close to ten minutes before he shook the sleep from his head and got out of bed. There was no use in going back to sleep since he would have to wake up a half hour later.  
He looked down at himself and noticed that he was clad in his dogi. It took a moment for him to realize that he had fallen asleep immediately after exiting the dojo and that Ranma must had carried him to his bed.  
He grabbed a clean pair of clothes and headed out and downstairs, in need of a shower.  
As he walked by the kitchen, he saw Ranma preparing himself some breakfast.  
"Morning," Shinji said, figuring it was good to let Ranma know that he was awake.  
Ranma turned around, "Ah, you're awake. I'm preparing breakfast, y'want some?"  
"Um, what are you making?" he asked.  
"I'm making myself the usual," Ranma smirked, "However, while I'm making myself something, it won't take much effort to prepare your meal. From now on, you're going to be eating a strict diet,"  
Shinji groaned.  
"Don't mind," Ranma chuckled, "It'll all be worth it,"  
Shinji headed to the bathroom where he took a shower, taking off his vest while he did so. He emerged from the restroom ten minutes later feeling rather refreshed.  
"Man, that shower did wonders," he commented, stretching a bit. His body wasn't aching that much anymore, the hot water helping to sooth his muscles.  
When he entered the kitchen, Ranma was sitting down by the table by the corner of the room, busy eating his meal. He glanced toward the food in front of the empty seat that would be his.  
"What is this?" Shinji gestured at the plate. He didn't bother to ask how Ranma had managed to finish cooking breakfast in the span of time it took Shinji to shower.  
"Nothing fancy," Ranma shrugged, "Just an apple, some grape juice, a small serving of cereal, and a toast with cheese and tomato,"  
Shinji shrugged and sat down and proceeded to eat the apple. He figured this breakfast would had consisted of something like steamed vegetables or such.  
"We'll gradually work your way up to a stricter diet," Ranma said, seemingly reading Shinji's mind, "For now, this'll help replenish the glucose you need to sustain you until your early lunch,"  
"Early lunch?"  
"Yeah, you're going to be eating six times a day from here on," Ranma said.  
"S-six times?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, it's a good way of removing unnecessary weight,"  
"Hold up," Shinji was confused, "First off, why would you want me to lose weight? Also, wouldn't eating more during the day make me actually gain weight?"  
Ranma shook his head, "Nah, it's a misconception. People think that a good way to lose weight it to actually eat less. Doing that does the exact opposite since eating less frequently makes your body believe it won't know when its next meal is and would therefore store fat for energy reserves in between meals. Eating more often does the opposite since your body gets used to constantly being fed so it actually eats up the fat since it doesn't need it because it expects the next meal to be only a few hours later. The unnecessary weight I'm referring to is fat,"  
"I never knew that, that eating more makes you lose weight," Shinji said.  
Ranma shrugged, producing a piece of paper from his pocket, "Many people don't realize that. Anyway, take this. It's a meal plan for the day. Just stick to it and you'll be fine,"  
"Um, o-okay,"

Shinji muttered under his breath as he entered his second class for the day, a tomato in hand. Since he only had fifteen minutes in between his first and second class, he had to trek down to the cafeteria to buy himself a tomato. It had stated on the piece of paper that he was to eat a tomato now.  
"Jeez, I can't believe I'm gonna eat this," he said. He took a bite in to it and felt like retching. He had never eating a plain tomato before. He didn't mind eating tomatoes, so long as he was eating it with something else. Perhaps eating it with something else helped hide the taste quite well since eating a plain tomato was an acquired taste.  
"Ugh," Shinji said as he finished the entire tomato.  
After finishing it, he wiped his hands and threw away the napkin. He noticed that his hand felt a bit stick from the tomato despite cleaning his hand. He needed to actually wash them.  
Shinji got out of his seat and headed for the door, heading for the bathroom. As he rounded the corner, he bumped in to Sumi as she was coming around in the opposite direction. The both of them ended up bumping in to one another and falling to the ground, Sumi's partially opened backpack spilling its contents, several textbook.  
"S-s-sorry," Shinji stammered, quickly fumbling around, gathering up the textbooks as Sumi got to her feet. He felt like kicking himself. He probably would reacted in time to actually grab Sumi before she fell over if it weren't for that damn vest he was wearing. Instead, it not only made him very awkward and clumsy, it also made him move much slower to physically react.  
"I-it's okay," Sumi said, "It's my fault anyway. I shouldn'tve been running," She didn't bother to mention that when she ran in to Shinji, it felt like running in to a brick wall.  
"A-are you okay?" he asked nervously, handing Sumi back her textbooks.  
Sumi nodded.  
There was a moment of awkward silence as Shinji tried to think of something to say. Sumi made it easy for him by saying, "Um, about yesterday...I'm sorry that Tou shoved you like that,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "I-it's okay,"  
"You didn't get hurt, did you?" she asked. Shinji had looked like he took a nasty spill when he lost his balance from the shove and fell that day.  
"I'm fine," he replied, glad that his sleeves weren't rolled up which would had exposed the scratches on his forearms.  
"He apologizes for what he did yesterday," she lied. Even though she had scolded at Tou shortly after he had dragged her off, he seemed to give no indication of wanting to apologize even though he was in the wrong.  
Shinji smiled, "Don't worry about it," He felt it was unnecessary and even embarrassing if he were to mention that his ego had gotten more hurt than his body that day.  
"Um, c-class it about to start," he said the first thing that came to his mind.  
"Aren't you going?" she asked, noticing that Shinji had been going in the opposite direction when they bumped in to one another.  
"Yeah, in a bit. I was just on my way to wash my hands," he nodded.  
"Oh. Okay. Well, I'll meetcha in class," she said, heading down the hallway.  
"O-okay," he said, heading off.  
Sumi went to her classroom and sat down. When she placed her textbooks down on her desk, she noticed that there was these red tomato juice stains the size of fingertips on her textbooks.  
"What the?"

Shinji emerged alone from 'D Cluster' shortly after his Physics class had ended. As he did, he reached in to his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper Ranma had given him. It told that he was to eat several ounces of steamed chicken and a cup of steamed broccoli.  
"Ugh," he groaned again.  
He looked at this watch. Since it was only shortly before three in the afternoon and he had an hour to kill before he was expected to meet Asuka and Rei by 'G Cluster', it meant he had plenty of time to actually leave campus and head over to the Chinese restaurant that he passed by all the time on his way to college. He was sure that place could fill in an odd request such as steam chicken and steamed broccoli.  
He attempted to jog in the general direction of the Chinese restaurant but immediately gave after around ten steps, becoming very winded.  
"Damn vest," he muttered. The vest kept in a constant state of weariness. He could deal with it though. Anything more strenuous than walking with the vest and perhaps two extra backpacks was too much to handle. Jogging with the vest was too energy consuming.  
Shinji walked across campus, noticing Sumi's boyfriend waiting by the building where he emerged. He didn't bother to approach the man, figuring it was best to avoid him. There was no need to accept an apology from him face-to-face when Sumi had said he apologized already. Sumi's word was good enough.  
Shinji made it to the Chinese restaurant after ten minutes of walking. Once there, he placed his order. He gave a meek laugh when the people behind the counter gave him an odd look at the unusualness of his order. However, after a ten minute wait, he received his order like he wanted. Heading back toward campus, 'G Cluster' to be more precise, Shinji was surprised to spot Sumi's boyfriend drive right by him. They both recognized each other and made eye contact.  
Tou and Shinji both narrowed their eyes at one another, assessing each other. After a moment, Tou slammed on the accelerator and his car sped off.  
Shinji paused for a moment to regard the rear of the car became smaller and smaller, eventually rounding a corner at breakneck speeds. He recognized the model and kind of car that guy drove. It was a classic in this day and age, a McLaren F1, a car that used to be considered the fastest production car around forty years ago. Nowadays, topping out at approximately two hundred and thirty miles per hour, the car's top speed was still considered fast in this time and age.  
"Hmph," Shinji snorted, "Priss' motorcycle can do twice the speed of that car,"  
Shinji sighed. He felt somewhat jealous. He would like to have a car. He actually had a license, thanks to Misato actually teaching him how to drive and him actually passing his driver's test. Unfortunately, since neither Ranma nor Akane believed in owning a car, it meant Shinji had no ready access to a car either, not without having to go to Misato or the others to ask to use their cars, something he felt very uncomfortable about.  
"It's because both Ranma and Akane can actually sprint faster than today's fastest cars," Shinji muttered, sighing depressedly, "That's why they don't bother getting a car,"  
Shinji choose to think about other things as he walked his way back across campus, thinking about what Ippo had in store for training today. Would it be more jump-rope and sit-ups? "Most likely," Shinji sighed. He really liked boxing but he couldn't help but question exactly why he was going through this in the first place. It felt more like he was doing it because Ranma wanted him to. But then again, he did like boxing and it seemed to be good enough reason to give it a try. Perhaps he did have potential to becoming a good boxer. At least in the boxing world, he didn't have to worry about only being considered second best since Ranma wasn't part of that world.  
Shinji said down on the bench in front of 'G Cluster', proceeding to eat his meal. He wondered if he could become the best in the boxing world. At the current moment, he felt very doubtful, but considering Ippo and Ranma were both simultaneously training, perhaps he had a chance. Before long, Shinji finished his meal. A few minutes after he finished and threw away the container his meal came in, Asuka and Rei met up with him.  
Together, they headed home together.

"You seem to constantly forget to give the to girls you're with their backpacks before yoimpllit up," Ippo smirked, as Shinji entered the gym once again, realizing that Asuka and Rei were long gone.  
Shinji dropped his and the girls' backpack off by entrance, off to the side so it wouldn't get in the way of people coming or going. He grabbed a set of clothes from his backpack and headed off to the locker room.  
He emerged a few minutes later, clad in his usual training attire. He approached Ippo as he was helping someone out with his form on the punching bag. He waited a few minutes until he was free.  
"So, what do I do today?" Shinji asked.  
Ippo gestured toward the hooks that hung the jump-rope by the back left of the gym.  
"Jump-rope, huh?"  
Ippo nodded, "Yep. We've got a little over five months before your pro test. You've got a bit to go before you'll pass, but you'll make it in time. For the next couple of weeks, we need to get your stamina and endurance up so we can work on speed and strength exercises then,"  
Shinji gasped, "P-p-pro test?"  
Ippo smiled happily, "Yep. I signed you up for the upcoming pro tests. It's a bit over five months from now. After five months, you'll be ready to enter the ring,"  
The color seemed to drain from Shinji's face.  
"A r-ring? W-with people watching?" Shinji seemed visibly nervous.  
Ippo nodded, "Yes,"  
"Um,"  
"Don't worry about it," Ippo said in a soft voice, "It might seem overwhelming at the moment, but you'll grow used to it. Before the pro tests, you'll be sparring in here, to help you get used to fighting in a ring,"  
Shinji gulped. He glanced toward the ring in the center of the gym. Because of its location, it meant everyone could watch him easily as he made a fool out of himself.  
"Shinji," Ippo noticed the young man seeming a bit distraught, "You don't have to worry about it, not for a while. Over time, you'll gradually get used to it,"  
"I-I guess," Shinji said reluctantly. When Ippo had mentioned about the pro test and fighting in a ring, it made Shinji realize that, to date, he had never sparred against someone other than Ranma, Asuka, or Akane, and with an audience.  
He looked over toward the ring, "Um, is that the same ring where you started getting used to an audience while sparring?"  
Ippo replied, "No. It was a different ring at a different gym,"  
"Oh," Shinji said, "Wait, you mean you didn't start your boxing career here, in this gym?"  
"No," Ippo said, smiling, "This gym used to actually be called Katsukawa Gym. I used to train at a gym called Kamogawa Gym. Anyway, after a while of training there, I go married and had kids and ended up I moved to MegaTokyo, I switched gyms and started training here. Eventually, because of the people I drew in because I was the Heavyweight Champion and was training here, the owner of this gym, Katsukawa-san, or Coach as he liked to be called, asked that I become partners with him. I did. After a while, when he retired, he handed over this gym to me and put it in my name,"  
"Wow," Shinji was impressed.  
"Anyway," Ippo waved a dismissive hand, "Enough about me. Let's concentrate on you and get you on those jump-rope right away,"  
"O-okay," he sighed.

At around five, Shinji stopped his jump-roping. He remembered that the piece of paper Ranma gave him and indicated that he was to eat something at around five or five-thirty. He reached in to his pocket to get the paper, realizing that it was in his other pants pocket after a moment.  
"Something the matter?" Ippo asked, noticing Shinji had stopped, approaching him. Since Ippo liked to walk around the gym observing everyone, he saw Shinji stopped almost immediately.  
"I'm supposed to eat something, but I don't know what," Shinji said, "I left the piece of paper saying what in my other pants pocket,"  
Ippo looked at the clock, "Oh, you're right. I forgot. I'll go get you your food,"  
"Y-you know what I'm supposed to have?" Shinji was a bit surprised.  
Ippo nodded as he headed toward his office where he had a fridge in there, "Yeah, I know. I'll be right back,"  
When Ippo emerged from the office a moment later, the had in his hand an apple which he threw over to Shinji. Unfortunately, it had been a bad choice for Shinji was unable to catch it due to the weight of the vest. The apple ended up falling to the ground where it exploded in to several pieces, all of them sliding across the floor where a few patrons doing some shadow boxing nearby ended up slipping on them, falling to the floor in a loud crash.  
"S-sorry," Shinji gave a meek smile.  
Shinji wanted to go right to bed as he entered the house. It was around six-  
thirty, him taking around the same amount of time getting home as before. He dropped Asuka's and Rei's backpack by the foot of the stairs, heading toward the kitchen. Dinner should be ready soon, everyone expecting him home no later than seven.  
Shinji entered the kitchen and was surprised to see that Akane wasn't the only one in there like he was expecting. In there was Akane and Luna.  
"L-Luna?" Shinji said, very surprised.  
Luna turned around and smiled warmly, "Shinji!"  
Without saying anything else, she walked forward and gave him a warm embrace. Akane smirked as she noticed the huge shade of red form around Shinji's cheeks. It was obvious he could feel Luna's breasts pressing against his own chest quite well.  
"Wow, you've grown since I last saw you," Luna commented, taking a step back. When she noticed the blush on his cheeks, she gave him a wry smile, "You better not be having hentai thoughts,"  
Shinji blushed in embarrassment, "N-no!"  
"It feels like it's been ages since I last saw you," Luna commented, regarding him for a moment.  
"When did you get here? Are you here by yourself?" Shinji asked, feeling somewhat self-conscious under her gaze, even though it wasn't a scrutinizing one. Luna continued to smile, "We got here at around two in the afternoon. I mean we as in Lina, Emiko, and myself. How are you doing? How's college?"  
"I'm doing fine. Asuka and Rei and I will be having finals really soon. How was your visit back your world? Has anything changed since you were last there?" he asked.  
"Basically nothing has changed. Everything stayed the same," Luna said, "Only a day had passed since we actually left that world and to this one,"  
"Did you guys stay on your world long?" Shinji asked, "Around three months passed on this world since you left to visit your world,"  
Luna shook here head, "No. We stayed there for as long as we had been away from here. They wanted to stay a bit longer and actually have it where we came back and only a day had elapsed since we left, but I didn't want to do that since it would throw all of our ages out of synch with how there are,"  
Shinji smiled, "Well, it's nice that you're back,"  
"I'm glad to be back," she returned the smile.  
"Are you guys going to be staying here from now on?" he asked. He wouldn't mind if they stayed. Luna was such a kind person. Having Lina and Emiko around definitely made the household more lively since the two of them and Asuka seemed to always be at each other's throat.  
Luna shrugged a bit, "Well, we have no plans to going back any time soon. We'll probably stay here for a few months before going back to our own world to visit it,"  
Akane giggle, "Luna, it seems like you're enjoying your rather unorthodox vacation from your job waitressing back on your own world,"  
Luna laughed warmly, "You'll find no arguments here,"  
"Where's Lina and Emiko? I didn't see them on the way in," Shinji asked.  
Akane spoke up, "Lina's taking a bath. Emiko is in the dojo doing katas. You should leave Emiko alone because she seems a bit upset because she noticed recently come to the realization that her fighting abilities had dramatically decreased since she first came to this world,"  
"It has?" Shinji was surprised.  
Akane nodded, "Yes. She sparred against Asuka this morning and Asuka came very close to beating her. This was the first time she ever came close to losing a sparring match to her and it really upset her,"  
"R-r-really? She almost lost?" Shinji was very surprised. Emiko used to be so skilled a fighter than he couldn't even touch her. If Asuka could come close to beating her, then that meant he might be able to beat her since he could beat Asuka.  
Akane nodded, "Yeah. Just leave her be. She only sparred against Asuka at around five, shortly after Asuka and Rei came home from school. Emiko had been doing katas since, which has been around a half hour or so. She still needs time to let off some steam," "Okay," Shinji said, "I'll be sure not to go to the dojo tonight," In a way, Shinji was inwardly happy, not because Emiko had almost lost to Asuka, far from it, but because that mean he wouldn't need to spar against Ranma tonight like they usually did. He was tired and can go to sleep right after he had dinner.  
Ranma entered the kitchen. He greeted everyone and then proceed over to the fridge, looking through it. After a few moments of searching, he realized that it was best to simply wait for dinner to be finished and closed the fridge door. He showed no surprise at seeing Luna there since he had been around when she and the others arrived.  
"Don't bother going to the dojo," Ranma told Shinji, "Emiko's in there and she needs time to cool off,"  
"I heard," Shinji said, gesturing toward Akane, "Akane told me all about it. Um, so, I guess we won't be sparring tonight, huh?"  
Ranma laughed, "That's what you think,"  
Shinji face-faulted.  
"We're not gonna spar in the dojo tonight," Ranma said, "We're gonna spar in the backyard,"  
Shinji sighed, "Fine,"  
Ranma left the kitchen. He walked down the hallway and headed to the bathroom. He wanted to take a shower. He entered the laundry room, the room one had to walk through to get to the bathroom. There, he proceeded to take off his clothes, throwing them in the hamper, not once noticing the cape and boots and armor that was set just off to the side of the hamper.  
Stark naked, Ranma slid the door to the bathroom open, just as Lina was finished with her bath and was on her way to the other room to dry off and get dressed.  
Their eyes locked. Lina froze like a deer caught gazing at car headlight, as she realized that she was no longer alone in the bathroom and was standing naked. Standing before her was Ranma, every bit as naked as she was. The difference was that Ranma seemed not one bit bothered by the fact that he was naked.  
Ranma, knowing he was done for and would be in a world of pain, figured it was best to at least go down in blazing glory. "Ah, so red is your natural hair color," Lina shrieked and pointed both her hands, palm open at Ranma's face.  
A moment later, in the kitchen, Shinji, unable to keep his balance, fell to the ground when the entire house shook.  
"What the?" he said. He looked toward the said to see that Akane and Luna were still standing, neither of them having lost their balance, unlike him.  
"What was that?" Luna asked curiously.  
Akane sighed, "What do you think? Your sister was taking a bath. Ranma probably accidentally walked in on her,"  
"Oh," Luna said.  
Together, the three of them exited the kitchen and to the bathroom. When they opened the door that led to the bathroom, they found themselves looking out the house, through a massive gaping hole where a section of the wall used to be. In a moment of shock, Lina had shot a fireball right in to Ranma's face, sending him and a section of the house in to the sky.  
Akane narrowed her eyes at Lina, who had been standing there, a towel wrapped around her torso. Ranma was no longer in sight.  
"S-sorry," Lina said gave a meek smile.

Shinji entered the dojo a short time after seven-thirty, knowing that he would find Emiko still in there. He had eaten dinner with everyone except for Emiko and Ranma, Emiko having remained in the dojo while Ranma was probably orbiting around the planet at the moment.  
Since Ranma wasn't around and would had most likely brought some food for Emiko, Shinji took it upon himself to bring her some dinner. Ranma would had wanted him to do that.  
Shinji took a moment to regard Emiko for a moment. She was clad in a dogi that was most likely loaned to her by Akane. Her skin looked slightly flushed and glistened with sweat from having continuously done katas. Her long flowing brown hair could be seen fluttering about as she pivoted and turned and executed attacks and blocks toward an unseen opponent. He couldn't help but notice that despite being a highly skilled female ninja, she still looked like a regular girl. One could never judge a book by its cover.  
The lights in the dojo were off and the light of the setting sun filtering through the windows gave the interior a rather soothing look to it.  
"Um," Shinji began, knocking on the doorjamb of the entrance, wanting to get her attention.  
Emiko stopped what she was doing and looked over and saw Shinji.  
"Shinji," she said, feeling somewhat glad to see him. He was a nice guy and she never disliked his company, "When did you get home?"  
"N-not too long ago," he said, "Um, I would've come and greeted you sooner, but I figured you wanted to be left alone. So, how was the trip back to your world? Did you have a good time?"  
Emiko nodded, "The trip back was fine. I visited Rene-sama during my stay,"  
"Rene?"  
"She's a girl that I used to watch over, and was in charge of keeping out of harm's way," Emiko answered.  
"Oh,"  
Emiko gestured toward the bowl of food in Shinji's hands.  
Shinji blushed slightly, "Oh, this. It's some food from dinner. Since you weren't there for dinner, um, I figure I'd bring it here for you. Akane's cooking is really good and it'd be a shame to miss it,"  
"Um, thanks," Emiko smiled, touched by the gesture, "But I'm not that hungry,"  
He looked down at the food, tempted to eat it for himself. He hadn't been able to eat the same meal as everyone else, Akane having prepared him something different that met the specifications of the diet Ranma had planned out for him.  
Emiko's stomach grumbled.  
Shinji smirked.  
The young girl blushed slightly in embarrassment, "Um, p-perhaps I am a bit hungry,"  
Shinji chuckled. He held the bowl forward which Emiko took. A moment after handing it over, he realized something.  
"Damn, I forgot the utensils," he said, "Um, w-wait right here. I'll be right back,"  
Shinji headed for the exit. However, before he quite made it out of the dojo, he tripped over his own feet, tumbling forward where he fell down the small flight of stairs that had led to the entrance.  
Emiko rushed outside to see if he was all right. When she saw him getting back up, perfectly fine, she couldn't help but giggle at the hilarity of what had transpired.  
For a brief moment, Shinji had unknowingly made her forget about what had been upsetting her.

"I feel so clumsy," Shinji said in embarrassment to Akane. He had been stretching his legs in preparation for his upcoming sparring session with her when lost his balance and fell to the floor of the dojo. Akane couldn't help but giggle when she saw it.  
It was only around eight in the evening, about a half hour after he had talked to Emiko. Since Emiko had decided that she had had enough with doing katas, she had retired to the house, leaving the dojo empty for use. Since Ranma wasn't around, Akane had volunteered to take his place.  
"That's because of the vest," she said, "Anyone sporting an additional hundred pounds will have trouble with balance and such. Your body is unused to it,"  
"I feel like it'll never get used to it," he said with a sigh.  
Akane gave a slightly laugh, "Don't worry. You will,"  
Shinji, finished with his stretching, was ready to begin sparring, "Okay, I'm ready," Akane and Shinji proceeded to spar against one another. Since Shinji knew Akane was significantly better than him, he had no qualms about going all out against her, knowing that she could easily handle whatever attacks he tried on her.  
"Did you know that because of how've you've been training more intensely, Asuka actually started training harder now?" Akane asked while they sparred.  
"R-really?" Shinji was surprised.  
Akane nodded, "It seems like since you're constantly training over at Makunouchi Gym, she's probably worried that you'll dramatically surpass her. Y'know how she is. She's the competitive type and doesn't like to lose. Even though she does lose to you on occasion, I think she's worried that she would start losing to you on a consistent manner not too long from now if you continue training,"  
Shinji smirked, "Wow, I never knew that,"  
"You may be better than her as we speak, and even she knows it, but you can't beat her consistently," Akane smirked, "She isn't going to sit idle while you surpass her. She's wants to give you trouble every step of the way. She is hell bent on you not being able to beat you on a consistent basis,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Well, considering this vest I'm wearing, I won't be able to beat her since I'm so handicapped,"  
"She'll be in for a surprise when you take it off, that's for sure," Akane said, "Not unless you told her, Asuka isn't aware that you're carrying all that extra weight,"  
"I never told her," he said, "Do you think there will be that big a difference when I take it off?"  
Akane smiled warmly, "Yes. However, don't take it off until when the time is right. Just keep it on for the next few months or so, or at least until your pro test,"  
"Oh, speaking of which, my pro test will be about five months from now," Shinji said, feeling a bit nervous about mentioning it, images of being in the ring and having to fight a stranger flashing through his mind, "Um, I-I'm kinda worried about it,"  
"You'll do fine,"

Shinji sighed in relief as slid his sore and aching body in the warm soothing water of the bathtub. The hole in the wall that Lina had created when she shot Ranma with a firebahe Ead been covered up by a large blanket that was there to provide privacy. Ranma would fix it tomorrow after he got the proper tools and items.  
Shinji sighed, wondering why he got the bad end of deal and had to sleep in the livingroom tonight. Since Ryoga wasn't around, his room would be used by Luna and Lina. His room would be used by Emiko for the time being until proper sleeping arrangements were arranged. Had Ranma been around, he would had most likely given up his room and chosen to sleep in the livingroom instead.  
"Man, I really hope all of this training pays off," he said.  
After a good fifteen minutes of soaking, Shinji got up out of the bathtub. As he walked over to the door that led to the laundry room where he would get dressed, it slid open to reveal a naked Emiko.  
It only took a quick glance for Shinji to notice that the beautiful girl was in all her naked glory. "Pervert!" she shrieked.  
No matter what, when it came to a guy and a girl accidentally seeing each other naked, the guy would always be at fault.  
Shinji looked at the mirror in the laundry room early in the morning. The palm-print from Emiko's slap was still very evident. It also didn't help that his neck ached because it wasn't all that comfortable sleeping on the couch.  
"I can't go to school like this," he commented. After a moment, he had to sigh because he knew he would have to. He couldn't miss classes or else he would fall behind.  
Shinji looked at his watch. It was only around eight-thirty. Since Rei and Asuka had classes that started earlier than his and Ranma wasn't around to escort them to college like usual. He felt a bit bad for Asuka and Rei, since they spent more time at college than himself. But then again, unlike him, they had long breaks in between classes. Shinji headed upstairs and knocked on Ranma's door. There was no answer indicating that Ranma hadn't gotten back yet. Lina's fireball must've blown him halfway across the planet for him to have to take that long to get back home.  
Shinji headed downstairs and in to the kitchen where he found Asuka, Rei, and Akane sitting around the table finishing up breakfast.  
"Well, look who's up so early in the morning," Asuka gave him a wry smile. She had been tempted to kick him awake when she noticed him sleeping soundly on the couch simply for the heck of it. She had chosen against it since he had given his room up to that annoying ninja-girl, Emiko.  
Shinji yawned a bit. Despite having slept so long, he still felt tired. All that training took a lot out of him those past few days. What was worse was that it looked like it wasn't getting any much better.  
"Is Ranma back?" he asked, already knowing the answer.  
"No," Akane said, smiling warmly. She knew exactly why he was up, that he was going to escort the girls to school.  
"I guess hafta walk with you guys to school," Shinji didn't sound all that enthusiastic about it. He knew that was the right thing to do. Even though Asuka was trained in martial arts, Rei wasn't. Ranma had instilled in him a belief that girls should be escorted to places. Who knew what kind of whacko there were in this world.  
"What makes you think we want an escort from you?" Asuka snapped, wondering why Ranma wasn't escorting them, having grown used to him walking them, even bickering between her and him included.  
"Thank you," Rei said in a soft voice, speaking on her own behalf.  
"Hmph!" Asuka snorted, "It's not like I need to be escorted or something. That stupid sense of Ranma has I find rather annoying,"  
Akane smirked, "I don't see you complaining when Ranma escorts you there like what Shinji is offering now,"  
Asuka blushed a deep shade of red, "Um, well, t-that's because I g-got used to it,"  
Akane gave a slight laugh as Asuka became silent from embarrassment. "What happened to your face?" Rei asked softly, noticing the palm-print on one of Shinji's cheeks.  
Shinji sighed, "I prefer not to talk about it,"  
"Ninja-girl slapped him because he was a pervert and peeped on her and she found out," Asuka grinned.  
"I am not a pervert was not trying to peep on her!" Shinji retorted defiantly.  
Asuka shrugged, "Whatever," The way she said it and body language irked Shinji because it easily indicated that she didn't believe him.  
"Don't mind, Shinji, I believe you," Akane smiled warmly. She had spoken to Emiko that night and her version of the story indicated that Emiko had been at fault walking in on Shinji. Shinji always kept his clothes neatly piled by the front of the door leading to the bathroom, so that anyone would know that he was in there.  
"What, you're taking his side?" Asuka gasped in surprise.  
Akane made a shooing motion toward her, "Go on, Asuka, you have class to get to. Shinji'll be walking with you and Rei there so deal with it,"  
"Hmph," she let out an annoyed breath.  
"Shinji, do you plan on coming back after walking them to school?" Akane asked, "Because if you do, I'll have breakfast ready for you by the time you get back," Shinji gave a nervous smile, "Oh, there's no need. I d-don't wanna trouble you. I'm gonna stay on campus and have breakfast there. Don't worry, I know what I'm supposed to get also,"  
"Okay," Akane smiled.  
Together, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei left the kitchen.  
"Hey, Baka-Shinji, since you're walking us to school, carry our backpacks," Asuka said.  
Akane laughed as she heard Shinji groan as he took the backpacks from both girls and threw them over his shoulder.  
"What happened to your face, man?" one of Shinji's classmates asked.  
"It's a long story," he replied with a sigh. This was probably the tenth time he was asked that question and not all of the students had entered the class yet.  
"Lettme guess, you got caught stealing some girl's panties," came a commented for another classmate, the joker of the class.  
"No!" Shinji spat, "It's nothing like that!"  
"It must be," the guy said.  
"No!" Shinji shouted, almost wanting to rip out his hair.  
"What happened to your face?" Sumi asked when she entered the room and noticing the palm-print on Shinji's face.  
"He got caught stealing women's panties," a classmate commented, smirking.  
"No! I did not such thing!"

Later that day, after he was done with his final class for the day, Shinji proceeded to walk across campus, heading toward the Chinese restaurant to get the steamed chicken and broccoli that would be his lunch. On his way back, to meet up with Asuka and Rei after their class ended, he was nearly startled to death when he heard screeching tires behind him as he walked.  
He quickly pivoted around, to see Priss on her fiery-red motorcycle come to a screeching halt just inches from actually hitting him, using just the front brakes so that the rear of the bike actually came off the ground. She performed what motorcyclists coined as a 'stoppie'. It was basically a very flashy and almost heart dropping way of coming to a braking halt.  
Shinji fell down and on to his backside, dropping his food in the process. It only took a moment for him to realize who it was when the back wheel touched the ground again as Priss took her helmet off and her long mane of brown hair cascaded down from it and down around her shoulders.  
"Y-you scared me half to death!" Shinji stammered.  
Priss smiled warmly, "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. You seemed like you were minding your business when I saw you. I just wanted to see how you would react,"  
"I think I reacted like how anyone would've reacted," Shinji said, getting back up to his feet.  
"More or less," Priss grinned. She didn't bother to mention that he had done the exact same thing to Ranma a long ago and that even he got a bit scared.  
"What happened to your face?" Priss asked, gesturing to the palm-print on his face.  
"It's a long story. Anyway, whatcha doing around here?" he asked. He felt perfectly comfortable talking to Priss or any of the other females he knew. Perhaps it was because they had been through so much.  
Priss said, "I was on my way to a gig. There's a concert I need to give,"  
Shinji said, "Oh yeah. I remember the advertisement for it on television,"  
"I've got a bit of free time because I got chased by a few cops for going over the speed limit and had I jetted," Priss said, smirking, "I lost them about five minutes ago. It's not like they can catch me anyway. So, where were you headed?"  
Shinji looked down at the mess from the spilled food that was his lunch. He proceeded to clean up the mess, "Well, I was heading back to campus to have my lunch, but now that I dropped it..."  
Priss gave an apologetic look, "I made you drop your food? I'm sorry about that. I didn't realize you were carrying food,"  
She got off her motorcycle and helped him clean up. When she bent over to help out, Shinji noticed that the front of the skin-tight motorcycling outfit she word was zipped halfway down, exposing quite a bit of cleavage which caused him to blush a terrible shade of red.  
"I-I-I can handle it myself," quickly cleaning everything up and dumping the mess in a nearby trash can. Since the food had been on the ground for more than two seconds, they were deemed inedible.  
"Let's go eat some lunch," Priss said, "Since it's my fault, I have no problem treating,"  
"Um, don't worry about it," Shinji said, "It's fine. You've got somewhere to be. I-I don't want to be a bother,"  
"Don't worry about it," she said, turning off her motorcycle. Sure, she was parked on the sidewalk, but it wasn't as if she really gave a damn and would pay off any parking ticket.  
She looked about. Since she was a famous singer, it would only be a matter of time before hundreds of fans swarmed her. Since there weren't many people around, there was a less likely chance anyone would readily recognize her right away.  
"Um, if you really don't mind then," Shinji said.  
"What do you wanna get?" she asked, hungry for anything.  
"Well, I dunno if you he wa but I actually on a diet," Shinji said, "Or something along those lines. That's because I took up boxing and need to get in shape,"  
Priss nodded, "Yeah, I heard. I talked to Akane the other day and she told me the details. When's your pro debut fight? I'll be sure to watch it,"  
Shinji held up his hands, "N-no, no debut fight. I-I'm n-not even a pro yet. I don't take my pro test until five months from now. Who knows if I'll even pass that test,"  
"Don't worry, I have faith in you," Priss placed a reassuring hand on Shinji's shoulder.  
"T-thanks. That means a lot," he smiled, "Anyway, because of my training in boxing, I hafta stick to a diet. I can only eat steamed chicken and broccoli. I got my food from that Chinese restaurant right over there,"  
"Okay, let's go get some," Priss said She couldn't help but admire Shinji's dedication and discipline.  
The two of them walked to the Chinese restaurant where Shinji reordered his meal and Priss ordered a simply pint of white rice. A girl needed to watch what she ate, afterall.  
When the two of them got their orders and were about to pay, Priss said, "Don't worry about it. It was my fault. I've got it,"  
Shinji quickly said, "N-no. Um, I've got it,"  
Priss gave Shinji an odd look, "Huh?"  
"Um, I've got it," he said, remembering what Ranma taught him, that he should always pay for a woman's meal, "I-it's not right to have a girl pay for a meal, um, even if you are rich and can easily pay,"  
Priss watched in amusement, admiring how much a gentleman Shinji was. It was exactly how Ranma was, always choosing to pay for the meals, even though she had more than enough money to pay. It was a quality to Ranma she really loved, a quality that seemed to have been passed on to Shinji.  
Shinji checked his wallet. After a quick inspection, he came to the embarrassing realization that he had the money for neither his nor Priss' meal. Priss noticed this and laughed warmly.  
"Um," Shinji gave Priss a meek smile.  
"Don't worry, kid," Priss smiled warmly, messing up Shinji's hair, "I've got it. Even though you couldn't pay, your gesture didn't go unnoticed,"  
Shinji blushed red as he watched Priss pay, "S-sorry about that,"  
"Don't worry about it," Priss smiled, feeling very happy.  
She paid for the meal. They then took their orders and sat down in a table by the corner of the restaurant and went about enjoying their meal and even talking to one another.  
Before long, they finished eating their meal.  
Priss and Shinji exited and walked a short distance to where Priss' bike was.  
Priss hopped on her bike and turned it on. There was a parking ticket on the windshield. She picked it up and crumpled it, throwing it in to a nearby trash can.  
"What was that?" Shinji asked, wondering what it was.  
"Nothing, just a stupid flyer," she smirked.  
Priss put on her helmet.  
"Well, good luck with your concert," Shinji said, turning around to head off to head back to campus, "And thanks for paying for lunch. I owe you,"  
"Where'dya think you're going?" she asked.  
"Huh? Oh, back to campus," he said, looking at his watch, "Rei and Asuka will be out of class in fifteen minutes. I better head off now if I don't want them to have to wait for me,"  
Priss threw him the spare helmet that was attached to her bike, a grin on her lips.  
"Hop on,"  
Tou was sitting in his McLaren F1, having dropped off Sumi and her housemate off at their dorm, was stopped at a red light. He heard a low sounding rumbling noise and looked over to the empty lane to his left just as a fiery-red motorcycle pulled up next to him. He glanced at the motorcycle, very aware of the sound of the engine it made as it idled. The engine sounded unlike any engine he had ever heard, indicating that it was most likely a custom one. He looked at the driver and couldn't help but notice the sexy curves of the woman that was riding such a machine. After a moment, he noticed that the woman had a passenger on the bike's back seat, the pillion. It looked like a young man.  
He didn't pay much attention to the guy, choosing to continue staring at the female rider. It wasn't until he glanced up and noticed that the rider had turned her attention toward him.  
"What the hell are you looking at?" Priss sneered.  
Tou's eyes widened as he recognized the woman's face behind the helmet visor.  
Oh my god, that's Priss Asagiri from 'Priss and the Replicants', Tou instantly thought. And she's on her bike right next to me! This is unbelievable!  
The man stammered with words, trying to form something to say, his mouth failing him.  
Annoyed, Priss turned her attention away. "You can drop me off here," Shinji said as got off the back seat and on to the ground, gesturing, "That's the building where I hafta been when I meet up with Asuka and Rei,"  
He took of his helmet and gave it to her, totally unaware that just on the other side of Priss' bike was Tou in his car.  
"Okay," Priss said, locking the helmet in place on a small latch on the pillion "Thanks for the ride," Shinji added, "I've never been on a motorcycle before. Um, it was really cool,"  
Priss smirked, "I'll give you a ride around the countryside someday. I'll show you how exciting it could get riding one of these things,"  
Shinji blanched slightly, feeling like it would be too exciting for him, "Um, p-perhaps. Thanks for lunch. I'll see you around,"  
"You going to be home tonight?" she asked, "It's Friday, and you know how we always have dinner every Friday," Shinji smirked. He, like everyone else, loved going out every week on Friday night for a group dinner together.  
"Yeah, I'll be home," he replied.  
"See ya then," Priss said. She watched as Shinji headed off toward 'G Cluster'. After a moment, feeling the gaze of that man still on her, she turned to look at him. There was this shock looked on his face.  
Tou, having recognized Shinji when he took of his helmet, had overheard the entire conversation. He didn't understand how that kid knew someone like Priss and would be going to dinner with her. He was stunned in to speechlessness.  
Priss smirked as she looked down and noticed Tou's expression The driver seemed to have recognized her and seemed shocked that someone like her was so close to him.  
A McLaren F1, huh, she thought, regarding the car and its sleek design. Those are fast production cars back when they were being made then and are even considered fast even now, even though they were discontinued long ago.  
Priss revved her engine, "Hey, lil boy, would ya care for a race?"  
Tou snapped out of his reverie, "A-a r-race? R-really?"  
"If you win, I'll give you the panties I'm wearing right now," she said. She felt a bit weird saying something like that but since all men were perverts, something like that would work wonders.  
"D-deal!" the man said.  
Both racers revved their engines, eager for the light to turn green. There was a long stretch of straight road ahead of them, a perfect course for a car. When Tou had revved his engine, Priss had been able to ascertain that the car had around twenty five hundred and fifty horsepower. The car was probably capable of doing around four hundred and thirty miles.  
Priss laughed, "Too easy,"  
When the light turned green, Tou popped the clutch in to first gear and slammed down on the accelerator while Priss did the same, opening up the throttle.  
The glass windows of nearby surrounding buildings located near the street exploded from the roar of the two vehicle engines. Both racers did a quarter-  
mile in under three seconds, blasting by that mark at over two hundred and seventy miles per hour each. As they both roared down the street, Tou and Priss looked over, they were right next to each other. Tou's car was only ahead by a bit since his car's front end was farther out than Priss'.  
I-I'm going to win, Tou thought as he noticed his car inching forward more and more.  
"Go buy a jet engine if you wanna consider beating me," Priss smirked.  
She popped the bike in to second gear and opened up the throttle, bringing the bike up to fifteen thousand RPMs, the bike's peak power band, sending a massive jolt of torque and power to the back wheel, causing the bike to go in to a wheelie while going at three hundred miles per hour. She zoomed by him in a blink of an eye, her bike not even breaking a sweat at such high speed.  
By the time she popped the bike in to third gear, Tou could not see the bike anymore.  
Shinji entered the gym, once again carrying two extra backpacks. He had actually remembered to give them back to Asuka and Rei, but since today was Friday, there was no need for them to worry about doing homework until after the weekend.  
He entered the locker room to get change. Once inside, he was surprised to see that the locker room was empty. Usually, throughout the day, there were perhaps one or two people in there getting changed or taking a shower,.  
When he had stripped down to nothing but his boxers, he heard someone clearing their throat, to get his attention.  
Shinji turned around. To his surprise, he found himself face-to-face with Emiko. When he recognized her, he took a defensive step back, worried that she was there to smack him again.  
"W-w-what are you doing here?" he stammered, quickly grabbing up a shirt and holding it in front of himself. Even though he had a rather nice build and was wearing boxers, he still felt very self-conscious.  
He regarded Emiko for a moment and noticed that she was clad in sweatpants and a sweatshirt.  
Emiko noticed the palm-print on Shinji's faced and blushed slightly. She didn't know she had hit him that hard that night.  
"Um, I'm sorry," she said softly.  
"Huh?"  
"I'm sorry about what happened last night," Emiko said, "I-I overreacted. I-it was my fault for walking in on you in the first place,"  
Emiko didn't bother to mention the talk she had with Akane this morning and how Akane had pointed out that she had been in the wrong. She had noticed a pile of clothes in front of the door to the bathroom but hadn't known what it meant and went in. She was a guest at the house and just because she didn't know what some gestures meant didn't excuse her from overreacting.  
Shinji seemed a bit shocked, not knowing what to say. It took a minute before he said, "Um, i-it's okay. Y-you're forgiven,"  
"T-thanks," she smiled slightly.  
"Um, what're you doing here?" he asked, still a bit confused.  
"I going to be training here," she said.  
"Y-you are? What for?"  
"I-I have my reasons," she said. Ranma had come home not too long ago and she had requested that he train her, so she could reach the skill and level of what they used to be. He had recommended that she train at Makunouchi Gym since she would not be able to handle the kind of training he was used to giving. Emiko was a skilled fighter and didn't need to be taught techniques. She merely needed to get more in to shape so her body would be as fast and strong as it used to be.  
She had no intention of becoming a boxer. She simply wanted to be in a disciplined atmosphere that would drive her to get become what she used to be but much faster than doing katas.  
Shinji wondered if he should tell her that he knew, that he knew she simply wanted to beat Asuka easily instead of struggling to beat her. Since it really didn't matter whether or not he knew, he said nothing.  
"So, what are you going to be doing here?" he asked, "Does the owner, Ippo, know about this?"  
Emiko nodded, "Yes. Ranma brought me here about a half hour ago. He asked the owner to take me in and teach me and he agreed. Um, s-since Ranma knew you trained her, he figured it would be good if we trained t-together,"  
"Oh. Okay," Shinji said. Deep down inside, Shinji looked forward to training with her. It would be nice training with someone he knew. He didn't really know what they would be doing together since it seemed like all he was doing is jump-rope and sit-ups.  
"Um, I-I'm going to go out now," Emiko said, feeling an awkward silence ensuing, "I'll leave you to get dressed and I guess I'll meet you out in the gym,"  
Shinji looked down and realized he was still in his boxers. He blushed a deep shade of red.  
Emiko blushed also. After a moment, she excused herself and quickly left the Locker room. Once out there, she met up with Ippo whom Ranma had introduced her to just a short while ago.  
Shinji got in to his training clothes and emerged from the locker room a minute later. When he did, he bumped in to one of the patrons, a young man named Kurosawa, named after his father whom used to train in that very gym many years ago.  
"Where'd you come from? How'd you get in there?" Kurusawa said, a bit surprised when he saw Shinji emerge from the locker room.  
"Huh?"  
"I was on lookout so that no one walks in while that girl was changing," he said, "How'd you get past me?"  
"Lookout? I didn't see anyone standing here when I went in," Shinji replied truthfully.  
"Oh, I guess you must've walked in when I walked off for a few seconds to ask Ippo a question in his office, nevermind," Kurusawa said.  
"Um, o-okay," Shinji shrugged.  
He looked around the gym, wondering where Ippo was. He immediately discerned him among the many patrons in the gym at the time because of the man's size. Although Ippo wasn't all that tall, around Shinji's height, he was much very muscular, still supporting his heavyweight weight class stature and musculature despite having a frame geared toward musculature of several weight classes below that.  
He saw Ippo talking to Emiko, the young girl paying close attention to what he was saying. Shinji approached the two of them.  
"It's just a simple exercise that helps develop balance as well as stamina," Ippo was referring to the jump-rope that was in Emiko's hands. He was surprised that Emiko never seen a jump-rope before nor knew how to use it.  
He turned toward Shinji, "Ah, you're here. Please, show your girlfriend, Emiko, here how you do jump-rope,"  
"G-g-girlfriend?" Shinji and Emiko said in surprise.  
Ippo looked confused, "What, you're not boyfriend and girlfriend?"  
"N-no!" the both of them said.  
"Oh," Ippo said, "I'm sorry. It's just that I thought you were a couple because you two looked like one,"  
Emiko and Shinji looked at each other and blushed. The two of them looked toward the ground afterwards, a bit embarrassed.  
"You two do know each other, right?" Ippo had to ask. Since he had been introduce to the two of them because of Ranma, he figured they somehow knew each other.  
"Yes," Shinji nodded.  
"We live together," Emiko added.  
"And you're not together?" Ippo was confused again.  
"No, we all live in the same house as Ranma," Shinji corrected.  
"Oh, I get it," Ippo chuckled, "That makes sense,"  
Emiko and Shinji gave a meek laugh.  
Ippo cleared his throat, "Anyway, since the little misunderstanding it outta the way, I can get the two of you training together. Shinji, can you proceed to do jump-rope. Emiko, just imitate what he does," Ippo smirked, "Except for the part where he gets tangled up in the rope and falls to the ground,"  
Shinji blushed. He was still embarrassed about that. However, he did feel good that he only did it once on average after a prolonged period of doing jump-rope.  
Emiko watched as Shinji took the jump-rope and proceeded to do the exercise.  
"Do you think you can do that?" Ippo asked her.  
Emiko nodded. She had never done that exercise before but it looked relatively easy.  
Ippo walked off and brought back another jump-rope, handing it to her. She then proceeded to imitate what Shinji was doing. After a few minutes, she was able to get the hang of it not have the rope get caught by her feet.  
"Good, that's the way," Ippo smiled, "Just do that for fifteen minutes. I'll be back later,"  
"Okay," both of them said.  
"Not you, Shinji," Ippo smirked, "Just continue to do it for an hour. We need to you to be very efficient on the jump-rope and you're going to need a lot of works,"  
"But-" Shinji because, wanting to explain about the fact that he was wearing a hundred pound vest. However, Ippo had already walked off to help someone out by the weightlifting area where someone was doing a bench press with incorrect form.  
Emiko and Shinji looked at one another as they did jump-rope together.  
After a moment, Shinji ended up tripping over the rope and tumbling to the floor in a gloriously embarrassing manner.  
"A-are you okay?" Emiko asked, still jump-roping.  
Shinji blushed as he got up to his feet, beginning to jump-rope again, "Y-  
yeah, I'm fine,"  
When she realized he was okay, she giggled.  
That was kind of funny.  
Emiko and Shinji walked home together. It was around six in the evening.  
"So, what do you think about what you did today?" Shinji asked, figuring it was better to indulge in conversation than to walk in complete awkward silence.  
"I got used to doing jump-ropes," Emiko said, "But I'm not all that good at doing the sit-ups and can't do even more than five push-ups,"  
Shinji gave a small laugh, "At least you can do push-ups," He thought, with that vest on, I can't do that much, that's for sure.  
Emiko noticed that Shinji was carrying three backpacks. She had been meaning to asking about that.  
"I was on my way home from school," Shinji knew what she was going to ask, "I was with Asuka and Rei. These are our backpacks,"  
"How come you're carrying them?"  
"Because they don't wanna carry them," Shinji gave a meek laugh.  
Emiko gave him a confused look.  
"It's a long story," he shrugged, "But don't worry, I don't mind. They're not all that heavy. My backpack's the heaviest so carrying Asuka's and Rei's isn't all that difficult," "You need help?" she asked, "I can carry Rei's backpack if you want,"  
The way no way she would carry Asuka's, that was for sure. If she were, she would use that opportunity to throw it in to the river or such.  
Shinji shook his head, "There's no need. Thanks anyway,"  
"I can help. It's no problem," she said, feeling bad seeing him carry so much weight. It must be really cumbersome. All she was carrying is the pair of clothes she had switched from when at the gym.  
"Don't worry about it," he smiled. Unfortunately, since he wasn't paying much attention to where he was walking, he ended up stepping down a curb, surprised by the sudden drop in elevation for his forward foot.  
He ended up staggering for footing. Emiko, reacting, reached out to grab one of Shinji's arms to provide him support. However, she didn't anticipate that Shinji's momentum would be so much that she could not only not prevent him from falling, but ended up falling down on top of him.  
When she realized what had happened, that she had fallen on top of Shinji, she quickly scooted over and got to her feet.  
"S-sorry," she said, very angry with herself. She didn't know what the heck was wrong with her. Sure, she basically hadn't trained since she first met Ranma which was a while ago, but she didn't expect that she would be some helpless girl, perhaps a bothersome one at that.  
"Are you okay?" she asked Shinji.  
"Yeah, I'm okay," Shinji responded, sitting upright. He looked at his hands and noticed they were a bit bloody, having used his hands to brace the impact of his fall. The concrete had tore in to the soft flesh of his palm easily.  
He turned toward Emiko, "Are you okay?"  
"Y-you're bleeding!" Emiko gasped, noticing the trail of blood flowing down the side of his face. She hadn't noticed the cuts on his hands.  
A small cut had occurred right by Shinji's right eyebrow.  
Shinji touched his hand by his right temple. When he brought his fingertips down, he noticed a bit of blood.  
"Hm, I didn't even feel my head hitting the ground," Shinji commented, not all that bothered. A little blood never hurt anyone. Sure, he cut his face and would mostly have a scar because of it, but it didn't really bother to him. From Emiko's point of view, a girl's point of view, it looked like one of the worst kinds of things had just occurred.  
"Oh my god, we have to get it treated!" she said, very worried.  
"I'm okay," he said, "It's okay. It's just a tiny cut,"  
"I-I'm sorry. I-I'm so sorry," Ranma smirked, "That's gonna come out as a nice scar. Congratulations,"  
"Um, thanks. I think," Shinji said. He and Ranma were in the kitchen where with Emiko.  
"What happened?" he asked curiously.  
Shinji explained about how he tripped and Emiko fell down on top of him. Akane didn't bother asking about why he was with Emiko, already knowing that she would be with him on the way home from the gym, Ranma having explained it to her.  
"Well, you're fine so there's nothing to worry about," Ranma commented.  
At that time, Luna and Akane entered the kitchen, home from exploring the city with her and her sister Lina. Lina had started watching television immediately after coming home.  
"What happened?" Akane asked, noticing the bandage on the side of Shinji's head.  
"I hurt myself," Shinji said, "But I'm fine. It's just a tiny scrape,"  
"He's gonna have a cool scar," Ranma grinned.  
Luna waved a dismissive hand, "That's nothing to worry about. Here, let me heal him,"  
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Ranma snapped his fingers, "You know how to do healing spells,"  
Luna walked over to where Shinji. She had him moved a the bandage as extended a hand toward his head. She said a word and her hand glowed light green. Everyone but Shinji watched as the cut closed up and disappeared.  
"There, now you don't have to worry about a scar," Luna smiled.  
"Why'dya go and do that for?" Ranma said, a bit disappointed.  
"Huh?" Luna asked.  
"Now he isn't going to get a scar," Ranma said. Shinji touched at where the cut had been. There was no indication that he had gotten hurt there. In a sense, he didn't know what to think. He wouldn't have minded a scar. Scars are cool.  
"That's the whole reasoning behind why I did it," Luna replied, "So he won't have a scar," "But scars are cool," Ranma said.  
The females in the room looked at him in confused.  
"What is that, some guy kind of guy thing?" all the females asked.

"Hey, you know what I just realized?" Ranma asked.  
"W-what?" Shinji asked nervously. He and Ranma were in the dojo, in the middle of their usual sparring session. It was around seven-thirty. Although around now, they would be eating dinner. However, since it was Friday and everyone were expected to get together for their traditional dinner, they had skipped dinner to save their appetite for later that night.  
"I realized that when you start boxing as a pro, if you had Luna healing you between rounds, you'd be an unstoppable boxer," Ranma chuckled.  
Shinji said, "Um, you're right. However, I haven't even taken the pro test yet. I'm not a pro. Why're you thinking that far ahead?"  
"Because, you're gonna turn pro," Ranma said, "It's guaranteed,"  
"What, didja pay someone off?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma laughed, "C'mon, don't be so down on yourself. You'll do fine?"  
"How am I supposed to be able to beat someone when I'm this slow and clumsy on my feet?" Shinji muttered, "I've seen some of the patrons in the gym that are pro. They're so fast and strong. They can hit those punching bags hard enough to make the chains rattle real loudly,"  
"Um, do you know why you're slow and clumsy?" Ranma smirked.  
Shinji paused for a moment before saying, "Oh yeah, it's because of the damn vest,"  
Ranma laughed, "Congratulations, you have only worn it for not even a week and you had momentarily forgotten about it,"  
Shinji became silent, surprised at himself. Ranma was right, he had forgot about the fact that he was wearing it until he thought about it, until Ranma had asked him why.  
"See? I told ya. Just give it some time and you'll be used to it,"  
"Wow,"

"So, you're now a boxer? What brought this up?" Misato asked. She and everyone were gathered around a giant round table. They were all in a restaurant, enjoying each other's company for their tradition Friday night group dinner.  
Shinji felt a bit nervous as he noticed everyone's attention on him. Even though everyone there he knew and were good friends of his, he felt very self-  
conscious when he knew there were so many eyes on him.  
"Shinji's always had an interest in it," Ranma said, wanting to draw some of the attention to give the young man some breathing room. He was a bit disappointed that Shinji hadn't truly gotten over his sense of shyness. He had to fight in a ring in front of an audience for God's sake and he needed to overcome that shyness that made Shinji Shinji. "What does he do?" Nene asked, looking toward Ranma.  
"Um, I've been doing mostly jump-rope," Shinji said, believing that he was giving up a good opportunity to getting over being the center of attention if he let Ranma do the speaking for him, "That and sit-ups. I haven't done anything else,"  
Asuka smirked, "Just jump-rope and sit-ups? You've been going there for several days now,"  
"I'm not good enough to move beyond that," Shinji commented.  
Asuka was rather surprised when he said that. She had been meaning to rift on him and ask that as question.  
"Well, he's only been training for several days," Priss jumped in, "He's you've gotta start off with the basics whenever you do something new,"  
"Shinji's going to be a very powerful boxer," Ranma said confidently, "I know it,"  
"When's your first match? What do they call it, your debut match," Ritsuko asked.  
"I-I hadn't taken my pro test, so I'm not even a pro," Shinji said nervously.  
"When's the pro test?" Nene asked.  
"Five months from now," Shinji replied, "If I pass, I'll become a pro. As a pro, my first match would be considered my debut match,"  
"I'll be sure come watch," Sylia said "Ditto," Priss said.  
"Same here," Linna said, a closet boxing enthusiast. She loved how boxer's had such amazing routines that could get them so well in shape. Their routines made the strenuous aerobics she did seem like child's play.  
"We'll all be glad to watch and cheer you," Ranma said.  
Shinji blushed, "T-thanks," He didn't know whether to be happy or worried. It would be very nice to have friends cheering for him, but having them there would probably add more pressure to win.  
Ranma grinned, "And since we'll be there watching, y'better hope you don't screw up,"  
Shinji face-faulted.  
Ranma laughed.  
All the adult females yelled at Ranma.  
Shinji smiled.

Ranma was surprised when he emerged from the house, intent on going on his usual four-in-the-morning jog, when he glanced up and noticed Luna standing by the balcony. The chill morning air made her night gown flutter.  
Ranma gulped, realizing that he was staring.  
"Luna?" he called out to her.  
Luna looked down and was pleasantly surprised to see Ranma, "Ranma? What are you doing there?" She had merely stepped out and to the balcony to simply get a breath of fresh air.  
"I came to serenade you," he joked.  
"All right, it better be good enough to make my heart skip a beat," she smirked.  
Ranma became dumbfounded, not expecting her to say something like that. After a moment, she giggled.  
"Out for your morning jog?" she asked.  
"Um, yeah," Ranma nodded, "Wanna join me?"  
Luna thought about it for a moment before asking, "Nah, I'm not cut out for jogging,"  
"No one is at first," Ranma said, "But you get used to it,"  
Luna nodded, "You've got a point. Okay, I'll jog with you,"  
Ranma's eyes widened in surprise, "R-really?" He had not expected her to say yes. Luna was very whimsical and he found that very nice when she did surprise him.  
"However, I just got back to this world," she said, "And I would like to take a day or so to get used to being on this world again. I'll be happy to jog with you a day or so from now. How far do you usually jog?"  
"Twenty miles daily, sometimes more," he replied.  
Luna's lips became a thin line. She liked didn't mind jogging, but she never jogged more than five miles or so every other day back when she was waitressing on her world. A girl needed to keep in shape but emulating Ranma's routine would most likely kill her.  
Ranma said quickly, "I don't mind slowing down or decreasing the distance I do,"  
"I don't want to slow you down," Luna said.  
"Don't worry about it," he said, "I don't mind,"  
Luna thought for a moment. If she did go jogging with him, she knew she would be slowing him down and she didn't like the thought of that.  
"How about a compromise?" Ranma asked.  
"What kind of compromise?" she asked.  
"You jog around five miles every other day, right?" he asked.  
"How'd you know?" she was surprised. She didn't remember ever mentioning that to him before.  
Ranma smirked, "I didn't. It was just a lucky guess. Your reaction told me otherwise,"  
Luna giggled, "Oh yeah, I forgot, you're good at lucky guesses. Okay, anyway, what kind of compromise,"  
"How about you job a bit more than five miles every other day, when you do go jogging with me, and I'll simply jog more on the other days when you're not jogging with me to compensate," he smiled.  
Luna thought about it for a moment.  
"Deal,"  
Ranma smiled, "Okay,"  
"Well, go on with your morning jog," Luna said, "I'll see you when you get back," "Okay, see you later," Ranma said, heading off.  
When Ranma disappeared around a corner, Luna couldn't help but smile to herself, feeling somewhat warm in spite of the cool morning breeze.  
"I'm glad I came out to get some fresh air,"  
Shinji entered the gym at around noontime. He was alone, already clad in training attire, and no longer carrying Asuka's and Rei's backpacks. It was the weekend and he figured he'd spend his day at the gym training. He had asked Emiko if she wanted to go but she said she would show up in an hour, having wanted to spar against Asuka before he had left.  
"Afternoon," he greeted gym patrons.  
Everyone greeted the newcomer in return. Ippo was surprised to see Shinji there so early.  
"Since it's the weekend and I don't have school to worry about, I figure I'd start training now," Shinji said, "I'dve came earlier, but I spent this morning fixing stuff around the house,"  
Shinji figured there was no use in going in to detail the time he spent after Friday night dinner working with Ranma at fixing the hole in the bathroom wall. He had spent this morning helping him finish what had been started last night.  
"Well, you're always welcome to train here whenever you like," Ippo said, "However, I don't recommend you coming here every day. You should spend a day or two over the course of the week resting and allowing your body to recuperate,"  
"Oh," Shinji said, "So you don't think I should train now?"  
Ippo smiled, "Well, since you seem eager to train, there's no stopping you. If you feel up to training, then go right ahead. However, you should take a day off every here and there,"  
"Okay, I'll take tomorrow off," Shinji said.  
"How're you feeling? You sore? Any parts ache?" Ippo asked.  
"I'm sore, that's for sure," Shinji said, "It's not a bad feeling of soreness though. It's kinda dull and isn't sharp or piercing. Anyway, I'm not so sore that I can't keep training,"  
"That's good to hear," Ippo said, "Since you're here, I'll have you do some new exercises,"  
"R-really?" Shinji said.  
"Yeah," Ippo nodded, "After you do around an hour's worth of jump-rope and fifteen minutes of sit-ups, come find me," He pointed toward the weightlifting area located just to the left of the gym entrance, "I'll show you some basic weightlifting exercises. It'll help build some strength,"  
"Um, okay,"

new stuff 9/8

An hour and fifteen minutes elapse. Ippo was helping someone out at the ring in the center of the gym when Shinji approached him. Ippo had been busy giving out advice toward the person wearing a headgear as he fought against a highly skilled opponent, one not requiring one.  
Shinji didn't bother to say anything, figuring Ippo was busy.  
He watched as the two people sparred one another. Although there was always two people in the ring beating the heck out of each other throughout the day, Shinji had never really took the time to observe, feeling that the two combatants were much like him and didn't like the thought of having people watching him.  
When he noticed several patrons gathered around the ring, shouting out advice toward the man with the headgear on, he figured having an extra person like himself watching wouldn't do much harm.  
Shinji continued to watch intently. He couldn't help but actually feel somewhat bored watching it. It fight looked almost slow and clumsy, both fighters looking awkward as they punched and blocked each other.  
He said nothing, knowing that this was because he was used to seeing Ranma and Ryoga fighting each other, hitting each other with punches and kicks that could cave a guy's face in with no problem.  
When the head geared fighter took a full force blow to the solar plexus, Shinji winced, feeling sorry for the guy as he crumpled down on to this hands and knees, unable to fight.  
Ippo climbed in to the ring, helping the fight to his feet.  
"You okay?" he asked.  
The fighter nodded. He looked very winded but otherwise okay.  
"You did really well," Ippo said, "I'm proud that you kept your guard up,"  
He dismissed the fighter who left the ring to head off in to the locker rooms to take a shower. He turned toward the winner of the match and said some encouraging words to him and dismissed him to go do some speed bag exercises.  
"So, whatcha think?" Ippo asked from inside the ring, turning toward Shinji as he stood outside.  
"Um, I really dunno what to think," Shinji said truthfully. It was definitely odd watching people other than Ranma and Ryoga fighting. He was unused to watching people fight and was used to actually facing an opponent, even if it was one that he would never beat like Ranma.  
Ippo smiled, "You wanna spar against one of the patrons?"  
"W-what? N-no! I-I'm not ready!" Shinji quickly said, waving his hands in front of him, taking several steps back.  
Ippo walked over to the edge of the right, his forearms draping over the top rope, "Don't worry about it. You don't need to worry about sparring for a couple of months,"  
Ippo climbed out of the ring and approached Shinji, gesturing for him toward the weightlifting area, "You done with jump-rope and sit-ups?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I'm getting the hang of it. Um, I-I still make some mistakes, but nowhere near as much as when I first started,"  
"That's good to hear," Ippo said.  
Shinji looked at the bench press.  
"Have you ever done bench presses before?" Ippo had to ask.  
Shinji nodded, "Yes,"  
"When was the last time you did it? How much do you think you can max?" Ippo asked.  
"I'm not too sure," Shinji said, "Probably around a hundred and eighty pounds,"  
Ippo seemed a bit skeptic. He had seen Shinji punching the punching bag and a person with the strength to lift that much weight should definitely have a more powerful punch.  
"All right," Ippo said, not really caring if Shinji was lying or not, "Get on the bench and underneath the bar. Let's start off lifting the bar,"  
"Okay,"

Ippo scratched at his head, confused. After ten sets at one repetition each, Shinji had finally failed to lift a hundred and eighty pounds. That didn't make sense. Shinji had just lifted around forty pounds over his body weight but had a punch that probably equated to someone with around a eighty pound max bench press.  
Shinji rubbed at his chest, as he sat upright, feeling a burning sensation. He had done bench presses before but rarely did so. He was used to doing push-ups with moderately light plates on his back as he did so.  
"It's weird," Ippo commented, "I don't understand why you're able to lift this much yet not punch hard,"  
Shinji knew why. It was because the weight vest rested on his body and shoulder but did nothing to hinder the use of his chest and arm muscles when he was lying down. "Well, whatever the case, it's a bit confusing," Ippo commented.  
"Um, I was very sore when I was doing the punching bag," Shinji said, figuring that it was true, "Today, only really not all that sore, at least no where near as sore as then,"  
Ippo shrugged, "I guess you have a point,"  
The front door opened and in entered Emiko and Ranma. Emiko, already clad in her training attire, looked over by the clock and noticed that she was about a half hour later than she had planned to have come. She took a moment to look around and immediately spotted Shinji just off to her left.  
"Ah, you came," Shinji said, to the two approaching him and Ippo, "You, too, Ranma,"  
"How goes everything?" Ranma asked, glancing around.  
"I was just having him do some bench presses," Ippo said.  
"Ah," Ranma acknowledged, "That's a good idea,"  
Ranma had to admit that Ippo was an excellent trainer. He had started Shinji on strength training. Ranma had actually planned on modifying their sparring session so that it concentrated on strength training as well when Shinji had gotten home. It was as if Ippo helped set the foundation to Shinji's training while Ranma helped reinforce it.  
"Well, I guess now that I got Emiko here safely, I'll be on my way," Ranma said.  
"Where are you going, back home?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma shook his head, "Nah, I'm gonna go visit everyone. Nene's working today, a freaking weekend, too. Anyway, I figured I'd surprise her and drop in,"  
"That's rather nice of you," Shinji commented.  
"I'm a nice guy," Ranma grinned.  
Shinji face-faulted. Ranma was generally a nice guy, but not a nice guy all the time. Sometimes he could be quite the opposite.  
"Anyway, I'm off," Ranma said, heading for the door, "Good luck with your training," "Thanks," Shinji said. After Ranma left, Shinji turned toward Emiko, "Um, h-how did the sparring session against Asuka go?"  
Shinji immediately realized he had breach the wrong subject when Emiko's visage became a bit somber. "Um, I beat her," Emiko said in a soft voice. Shinji noticed she quickly wanted to changed the subject when she turned toward Ippo and asked, "Um, so, what training would you like me to do?"  
Ippo regarded her for a moment. He definitely noticed that something was bothering her. He would need to do something to help clear her mind of whatever was bothering her.  
"Just get yourself warmed up," Ippo said, "Just do some jump-rope like yesterday. Do it for around fifteen minutes. When you're done, come and get my attention," "Um, okay," she said, walking off.  
After she was well in to doing her jump-rope, Ippo turned toward Shinji, "What's the matter with her?"  
"You noticed something's wrong with her?" Shinji was a bit surprised.  
Ippo nodded.  
"I think it has to do with her and Asuka," Shinji shrugged, "They spar each other but Emiko is supposed to be significantly better than Asuka. However, I think Asuka's been giving her trouble and it made her realize that she was probably going soft. I guess that has her bother,"  
"That could explain why she seems only interested in shaping up at this gym," Ippo commented, "And no seeming to care one bit about actually doing anything pertaining to boxing,"  
"Sorry," Shinji felt like it was his fault Emiko was using Ippo's gym for the wrong purpose.  
Ippo laughed, "Don't worry about it. She's actually draws attention to the gym. We actually got two new recruits since yesterday,"  
"I didn't know that,"

Emiko approached Ippo, done with her workout. She didn't bother to ask for his attention when she noticed that he was busy spotting Shinji as Shinji when about finishing a set of military presses, an exercise that required him in a sitting position while he lifted a barbell from the back of his neck as shoulder level and up directly over his head. "What should I do next?" she asked, eager for the next body shaping exercise.  
When Shinji finished, Ippo turned toward Emiko, "Ah, perfect timing. You warmed up?"  
Emiko nodded.  
"All right, you and Shinji, the two of you will do some roadwork," Ippo said, smiling.  
"Roadwork? What's that? Doing construction work and fixing roads?" Shinji asked.  
Ippo laughed aloud. After a good minute of laughing, Ippo stopped, wiping the tears from his eyes, "No. It's nothing like that. Roadwork is boxing term for jogging,"  
"Oh," Shinji said.  
"The two of you, go do some road work," Ippo said, "Just jog around this block. This block is exactly one mile around. Try and be back here in nine minutes,"  
Emiko said, feeling proud of herself, "I can do much more and much faster,"  
"I'm sure you can," Ippo said, smiling warmly, "But this isn't a race. It's cooperative roadwork and you guys actually jog and keep each other company,"  
"Um, okay," both of them seemed to say, not really knowing the significance it it. Shinji glanced at Emiko. He felt a bit self-conscious, knowing that he was going to be the one slowing her down.  
"Go," Ippo told them.  
Emiko and Shinji quickly left the gym.  
"Them jogging together should help clear Emiko's mind of whatever was bothering her," Ippo smiled, turning his attention toward another gym patron.

Shinji felt like he was going to pass out. He stopped, falling to his hands and knees, gasping for breath. His heart was beating so rapidly it felt like it was going to explode.  
Ten minutes had already elapsed and Shinji felt like he was a hundred miles away from the gym. He could actually see the entrance to the gym but his legs were on fire and didn't want to move. "Are you okay? You don't look so good," Emiko said, a bit confused at what she was supposed to do. She choose to stop and stand close to Shinji rather than run on ahead, remembering that Ippo mentioned that this was supposed to be cooperative jogging. Unlike Shinji, she felt perfectly fine, not even having broken a sweat.  
"N-nah, I-I'm just really outta s-shape," Shinji lied, feeling a bit nauseous.  
Emiko smirked. If struggling like Shinji to jog just one mile was considered out of shape, then perhaps she was in a lot better shape than she believed and had been very hard on herself,"  
"H-h-hard t-time b-breathing," Shinji continued to gasp.  
Emiko crouched down by him, a bit worried, "Do you want me to get Ippo? The gym is right there,"  
Shinji struggled to his feet, his knees shaking as he did so, "N-n-no. I-I'm fine. I-I just needed some rest,"  
Emiko stared at Shinji as she watched him basically will himself back to his feet and continue on, long after his body had given up. After a moment, she quickly ran after him to catch up.

Shinji looked at the clock as he emerged from the locker room after having washed his face to help cool himself down.  
It was around six in the afternoon. He had been training at the gym for over six hours. It was time that he called it a day. Emiko had probably been there for around four and a half hours.  
"I'm going to get going now," Shinji said, feeling the urge to sleep for a few hours. He was physically drained. The training session had actually consisted of him working out with weights, doing some more jump-roping, and finally finishing up with another jog around the block as a form of cool down. Emiko's training had consisted of her doing jump-rope and working with some light weight dumbbells doing arm curls that Ippo showed her.  
Ippo had made it so that although both their training routines were different save for the jump-rope and jogging, they seemed to be working together doing very similar exercises.  
Ippo looked at the clock, "Wow, it's already that late. Man, you've been here for six hours,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "I know. There's no need to remind me,"  
"I lost track of time," Ippo wanted to kick himself, "I should have told you and Emiko to call it quits after you passed the three hour mark for your training. There's a thing called overexertion that can occur if you worked out too hard and for too long.  
"I'll keep that in mind," Shinji said.  
He noticed Emiko had a lost look on her face, not really knowing if she should be staying or leaving with Shinji. She had showed up an hour and a half later than he had. Did that mean she should stay that much longer after he finished?  
"Um, d-do you want to leave with me?" Shinji asked nervously, "Um, we can walk home together,"  
"Go on," Ippo smiled, "You two, Shinji especially, should have been done three hours ago. And considering how much you two trained today, there's definitely no need to come in tomorrow. Actually, even if you wanted to, I doubt you would. You two are going to be really sore,"  
Emiko gulped. She didn't really like pain that much.  
Shinji shrugged, "It don't bother me much. I've been sore since I've started training here. A bit more soreness probably won't be that bad,"  
Ippo smirked, "If you say so,"

Shinji was greeted by Luna as he and Emiko headed in to the house. She had been on the way out.  
"Where are you headed?" he asked, noticing that Luna actually looked very beautiful dressed in a comfortable-looking spring dress. Luna smiled warmly, "I borrowed some money from Akane. I'm on my way to one of those sports shop I remember seeing in town. I want to get myself some comfortable running shoes,"  
"Running shoes? What for?" he asked.  
"Nothing in particular," she gave him a mischievious smile as she walked by him, "Please, tell everyone I'll be back in a bout an hour," "Okay," Shinji said.  
"I wonder about her," Shinji commented, "She seems like the type of person who knows the ultimate answer to the universe and doesn't tell anyone simply because she liked to see how people tried to go about figuring it out themselves,"  
"You mean the meaning of life?" Ranma's voice came from behind them, "I found that out but forgot to write it down,"  
Both of them turned to face Ranma as he came down the stairs. Emiko didn't seem to understand that it was a joke. Shinji didn't seem to find it funny enough to laugh at it.  
"Haven't you used that joke before?" he smirked.  
"Have I? I don't remember," Ranma shrugged.  
"How was your visit with Nene?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma groaned, "Screwed up. I got arrested and locked up for a few hours. I played along and hung around in a holding cell for a few hours. When I got bored, I broke out,"  
The sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance.  
Ranma jerked a thumb toward the front gate, "That's probably the sirens of one of the police vehicles on a massive man hunt trying to catching me,"  
"W-what?" Shinji and Emiko were surprised.  
Ranma shrugged, "Don't worry. It's not like they can really do anything even if they do find me. It's not like bullets hurt me anyway. They're gonna need a lot more firepower than a few rocket launchers and high powered rifles if they plan on stopping me,"  
Ranma laughed, walking off further in to the house.  
"Man, I think the fact that he finds himself with a lot of free time that has Ranma acting weird," Shinji commented.  
"I agree," Emiko said.  
They both shrugged and headed off in to the livingroom. There, they saw Lina sitting on the couch, watching television intently. Ranma was standing by the back of the couch, observing what she was watching.  
Ranma and Lina were in the same room together. That usually wasn't a good thing if there were no adults around to make sure Ranma and Lina didn't get under each other's skin.  
"Hey, Dragon Spooker, whatcha watching?" Ranma asked.  
"What did you call me?" Lina turned her attention away from the television and on to Ranma, her eyes narrowing.  
Emiko smirked. She was glad she told Ranma of Lina's nickname. It was very amusing to see Ranma use that nickname so casually.  
"Throw a fireball in this house and you're going right back to your world," Ranma smirked. He would let the other day's incident slide. He would let nothing else slide and Lina had better behaved herself while she was there living under his roof.  
Lina gritted her teeth.  
Ranma placed a hand on the top of Lina's head and messed up her hair, "However, if you behave and be a good lil girl, then you can stay,"  
"Hmph," Lina snorted.  
Shinji figured it was best not to stay around, fearing that Lina would lose her temper and actually shoot a fireball in Ranma's face. He didn't want to be around to get caught up in the explosion. He chose to go to the kitchen, intent on grabbing an apple to tie himself over until dinner.  
Inside the kitchen, he found Akane there, chopping some vegetables in anticipation of preparing dinner.  
"Um, whatcha making for tonight?" he asked, wanting to make some conversations.  
A loud explosions could be heard as the house suddenly shook. The violent shaking had caused Shinji to lose his balance. However, unlike last time, he actually managed to regain his footing this time around. When the shaking stopped, he and Akane looked at each other.  
Shinji exited the kitchen and back in to the livingroom. There, she saw Emiko standing where he had last left her, a shocked look on her face. Lina, noticing Akane entering right behind Shinji, blushed a deep shade of red, embarrassed at what she had done.  
The two of them looked toward the front of the room where there was a gaping hole where wall used to be. Beyond there was a hole in the outer wall that surrounded the house. They found themselves looking out through their livingroom where the could see the neighboring house.  
"What the heck happened here?" Akane asked, narrowing her eyes on Lina, "Explain,"  
Although she had a funny feeling Ranma had most likely did something wrong, she did not take it lightly that Lina had blown a giant hole in the side of the house. "S-sorry," Lina gave a meek smile.

Shinji woke up on the couch in absolute pain on Sunday. His body ached like never before. Shinji had experienced for hand just how painful it was to do weightlifting and lifting heavy weights when he hadn't spent the weeks or even month that it usually took to work up to the weight consistently.  
Why did Ippo make me do that if he knew that it was going to cause this much pain afterwards, Shinji thought.  
He took his time sitting upright. To his surprise, he found Ranma in the livingroom with him, busy fixing up the wall that had been created because of Lina last night. Perhaps Lina didn't shoot Ranma in to the stratosphere like last time.  
Shinji had been surprised at the cause of what had caused Lina to shoot another fireball in the house. It was because Ranma had actually provoked her by grabbing one of her breasts to see how she would react. He was definitely in the wrong there.  
He looked down and noticed that there was an extra set of blankets on him, not really knowing where it came from. He did notice that it was blankets from his own bed though. He figured Akane put it on him that night, worried that he would get cold because of that hole. Little did he know that Emiko, last night, having come downstairs to get a drink of water, had noticed Shinji shivering while he slept.  
Ranma smirked as he turned around and saw Shinji watching him, "Glad you're finally awake,"  
Shinji looked at the clock. It was eleven in the afternoon.  
"Oh man! I slept for that long?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
Ranma shrugged, "Don't worry about it. You must've worked yourself out to the bone yesterday. Take today off,"  
"I-I d-definitely am," Shinji groaned as pain shot through him. Ranma smirked. That's smart of Ippo, making him lift weights and so much yesterday, he thought. Shinji would have most likely tried to train today as well and making his body be this sore is definitely gonna prevent him. He needs to know that it's okay to rest his body.  
"Where is everyone?" he asked.  
"Everyone, I mean everyone, except you and me and Emiko, went shopping," Ranma shrugged, "I don't understand what's with girls and shopping. It's like they not only need matching outfits for the day of the week, but need matching outfits for the mood they're in for that day of the week,"  
"Emiko's still home?" Shinji asked, "How come?"  
"She's still sleeping," Ranma replied as he hammered a few nails in to the sheetrock he had just put up covering the hole, "She's resting herself. She's never been sore before so she thinks something's wrong with her body and is basically giving herself actual bed rest,"  
"Why dontcha tell her that a little soreness is fine?" Shinji asked.  
"I will," Ranma smirked as if a devious plan was forming in his mind, "Hey, are you feeling all right about walking?"  
Shinji nodded. His whole upper body ached. His legs weren't all that sore since he did no leg exercises.  
"Can you go down to the hardware store and get me some nails?" Ranma asked, "I'm going to run outta nails before I finish fixing this wall,"  
"Um, o-okay,"

Emiko groaned as she heard a knock on the door.  
"Come in," she said. She continued to lay in her bed, looking up at the ceiling.  
The door opened to reveal Shinji. He had this nervous look on his face.  
"Um, I came in to get a pair of my clothes," Shinji said, "Ranma wants me to go buy some stuff at the hardware store,"  
He walked over to his dresser draw and proceeded to search through it for some clothes. He didn't want to wear the clothes he was wearing now since they were all wrinkled from him sleeping with them on.  
Emiko nervously watched. She felt as if the room was now smaller than it used to be with Shinji in there. It felt much like the same feeling she got when Ranma came in to ask why she was still in bed.  
"Um, Ranma told me that your all sore," Shinji said.  
Emiko turned her head toward him, "My body aches whenever I move,"  
"That's okay," Shinji smiled slightly, "My body is really sore. I had trouble even opening the door to this room. That kinda soreness you get is actually good for you,"  
Emiko gave Shinji a skeptic look.  
"It's just sore cause you're body's unused to the training it went through, that's all," Shinji said, "Ironically, the best way to get rid of the soreness is to actually work that particular body part since the extra blood flow helps wash away build up acid that occurred from working out,"  
Shinji couldn't help but smile, feeling good about himself. He actually sounded smart there, even though he was just repeating words Ranma had taught him.  
"W-work it out? My arms are sore, you mean I should actually work them out?" Emiko asked, dreading the thought of lifting weights again.  
Shinji shook his head, "No, just use your arms like you normally do. Before long, it'll just feel like a dull ache and won't hurt so much. Um, if y-you want, why not come with me to the hardware store? W-walking or doing anything but staying in bed will help alleviate the soreness,"  
Shinji was a bit surprised at himself. This was the first time he ever asked a girl to go anywhere with him simply for the heck of it. He was used to accompanying a girl simply for escorting reasons, not just being with one for the sake of company.  
Emiko thought for a moment.  
"Um, o-okay," she said, figuring it couldn't hurt to tag along and that there was no reason for Shinji to lie about actually working out sore body parts.  
Shinji gave a smile, a little too happy toward a response than he expected, "Um, I-I'll be downstairs waiting. Are you going to take a shower?"  
Emiko shook her head, "No. I'll just get changed,"  
As she sat upright, her blankets fell to her waist to reveal her bra. She quickly pulled it up and covered herself, glancing toward Shinji to see if he saw.  
Shinji was blushing a deep shade of red, indicating that he did see, "I saw nothing. I saw nothing. Don't hit me,"  
He quickly exited the room as if taking cover from whatever object Emiko could get her hands on and throw at him.  
Emiko giggled a bit.

From the livingroom, Ranma heard Shinji's voice.  
"I'm on my way," Shinji had from the front door, "And Emiko's coming along. I managed to convince her that it's better to simply go about like she wasn't sore to help alleviate it,"  
"Okay," Ranma shouted out in reply, "I'll be home when you two get back,"  
He listened for the sound of the front door opening and closing. When he heard it, he gave himself a little cheer, holding his arms upward as if in a victory pose.  
"God rest your soul, Nabiki, but eat your heart out," Ranma grinned, "You're not the only one that can be manipulative too ya wanted to,"  
His secret celebration was short-lived as the second piece of sheetrock Ranma had pushed up against the opening suddenly began to fall over, Ranma barely able to react in time to catch it from hitting the floor. "Better close this wall up first," Ranma told himself, grabbing a hammer and nails.  
Ranma had plenty of nails to get the job done.

Shinji started dozing off in Physics class that Monday, bored. It wasn't until he realized that class was actually going to end soon did he wake up. He was surprised when the professor said that the tests had been graded and was going to hand back.  
Shinji nervously approached the professor when he heard his name called out. When he got his test and looked at the scored, he was very happy with what he got.  
"How'd you do?" Sumi asked curiously. She had already gotten her test back.  
"Ninety five," he smiled, very proud of himself. He was going in to the final with an 'A' in the class. Considering how much the final counted after it was weighed against tests and homework and quizzes, he needed to get a eighty four on the final to get a 'B'. He was in the clear. "Congratulations," she said.  
"How'd you do?" he asked.  
"Ninety eight," she answered, "I forgot to add in one of the units for an answer. What did you get wrong?"  
"I missed answering one of the parts of the questions correctly," he said.  
"Which one?" she asked.  
She and Shinji walked together as they headed for the exit.  
Shinji handed his test over for her to look at it and the mistake he had made. After a short moment, she pointed out that he was supposed to use a third equation to get the answer. "Oh, I get it," he said, feeling stupid, "I should've seen it. That's why that equation was on the board. I was wondering why the professor had placed it up there during the test,"  
Before the two of them emerged from 'D Cluster', Shinji stopped dead in his tracks right before the exit so that Sumi could continue on ahead.  
"I'll see you in class tomorrow," he said.  
"Um, okay," Sumi said, somewhat confused for Shinji's sudden stop.  
When she emerged from the building and noticed that Tou was waiting off to the side, she realized that Shinji had merely stopped so that Tou wouldn't assume the wrong idea.  
Sumi couldn't help but smile. That was rather considerate of Shinji.

The rest of the day went about uneventful. From there, Shinji headed over to the Chinese restaurant to get his usual order of steamed chicken and broccoli. When he got his order, he headed over to 'G Cluster' where he would eat his meal and do a bit of studying during whatever free time he had remaining before he met up with Asuka and Rei. When he arrived at the gym, he was surprised to see Emiko standing there, seemingly waiting for the three of them. She was clad in training attire since she didn't want to burden anyone in to emptying out the locker room just so she could change in there.  
"Um, hey," Shinji said, "Were you waiting for us or something?"  
Emiko shook her head, "Um, not really," She was lying but none of them noticed.  
Shinji remembered to hand over Asuka and Rei their backpacks. They looked at it in confusion when he held them both out in front of him for them to take.  
"I keep forgetting to give youhad r backpacks," Shinji answered, "This time I didn't forget," He felt a bit bad at having the two of them carry the backpacks but since it was a very short, it wasn't all that bad. Although he contemplated actually walking all the way home and dropping the backpacks off before coming to the gym, he felt this was a better way. Asuka and Rei took their backpacks and said their goodbyes and headed toward home.  
"Ranma says you usually walk Asuka and Rei home," Emiko commented.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, every day, at least before I started coming to the gym. They're only a ten minute walk from home. I tend to walk with them since it isn't out of the way for me. I spend my free time waiting for them studying so I'm not wasting any time,"  
"Excuse me," someone said, a man wanting to go in to the gym to train.  
They made a quick greeting to the man before they stepped to the side to allow him through. As he passed, the two of them figured it was best to head on in as well. Once inside, Shinji and Emiko found the entire gym in a uproar, everyone gathered around the ring. Shinji glanced toward the ring and found their trainer, Ippo in the ring. They were surprised to see that he was actually sparring against one of the gym patrons, the same man that Shinji saw beat that guy with the headgear the other day. This time around, that man was wearing the headgear.  
Shinji watched intently, very eager to see how good a fighter Ippo was. He had only read of how good Ippo was at boxing and had never seen it before. He had seen videos of him in his early years, before he even became Featherweight Champion which took place over a decade before he became a very skilled fighter.  
Ippo was giving out instructions to the man as the two of them circled on another. They seemed to be on the second or third round of sparring and the head geared man was breathing heavily.  
"I can't see anything," Emiko commented.  
Shinji looked over, totally forgetting that Emiko was shorter than even the shortest guy in the gym. Since they were gathered by the back of the surrounding crowd, there was no way she would be able to see over all those guy even if the ring was elevated.  
Shinji quickly looked around and spotted a folding chair by the corner of the room. He ran over and grabbed it, bringing it over where he placed it by Emiko, "Here, stand on this. If you have trouble balancing on it, just place a hand on my shoulder,"  
Emiko nodded. She got up on to the chair. Although she had an excellent sense of balance, she kept a hand on Shinji's shoulder. It was better safe than sorry and there was no telling if someone would accidentally bump the chair while she was standing on it.  
The two of them watched as the opponent dashed toward Ippo and executed a combination of jabs and straight punches, Ippo ducking and weaving all of them.  
"Wow," Shinji commented, impressed.  
Ippo moved with grace that was not seen in either fighters the other day. Shinji noticed that he dodged the punches with minimal movement, seemingly to conserve his strength.  
Although it wasn't quite as intense as watching a Ranma-Ryoga fight, Ippo's movements reminded Shinji slightly of the way Ranma would dodge. "He's alternating between a hard and evasive stance," Emiko commented to Shinji over the cheering of the crowd, noticing how Ippo dodged most of the punches but sometimes allowed himself to block as well.  
The two of them, both with critical eyes simply because of training, was able to analyze Ippo's movements and techniques.  
"Look, minimal swaybacks," Shinji commented, "He's swaying back just enough that the opponent's punch misses. He's using the most minimal energy required to dodge,"  
"Ippo's upper body is extremely well guarded," Emiko stated, "The opponent should attack his legs where he's open. A quick snap kick to the knee will seriously slow him down,"  
"There's no kicking or attacks below the waist in boxing," Shinji replied, smirking. He found it rather cute that Emiko didn't know a single thing about boxing. She had been training here and should had noticed that everyone in the gym only trained with punches.  
Emiko seemed a bit confused, "If they're sparring, why are they handicapping themselves by limiting their attacks to just punches,"  
"This is boxing," Shinji said, "Not something like ninjitsu or martial arts like you're used to,"  
"You're going to have to explain how boxing works to me someday," Emiko said, still confused.  
Shinji nodded, "Okay. I'll explain it to you later,"  
They both watched as Ippo continued to assume a defensive stance, tending to dodge than block.  
"His guard looks unbreakable," Emiko couldn't help but admit, noticing how Ippo had his gloves up and had his chin tucked behind them.  
She knew there were very powerful fighters on this world but was surprised to see someone so close by where she currently lived. It was rather exciting and he looked like a very worthy opponent for sparring.  
"That guard is unique and only Ippo uses it," Shinji said, remembering what he read that described the stance, "It's called the 'Ippo Peek-a-Boo',"  
"That's a funny name for a stance," Emiko giggled.  
"True, but if you look at that stance-"  
"I know. It seems very effective," Emiko said, becoming serious, "Um, w-what kind of fighter is Ippo?"  
"Lost once in entire career," Shinji said, "But this was went Ippo was young, around age twenty, well before he reached his peak. He disappeared for a year after he became Featherweight Champion. Came back a few weight classes heavier and worked his way to winning the Middleweight Class. Disappeared for a year after that. When he came back as a Heavyweight, he was amazing. However, it was said that it wasn't until after he became the Champion was he considered to be at his peak,"  
"What are these Featherweight and Middleweight and Heavyweight classes?" Emiko asked.  
"They're weight classes," Shinji said, "The weight classes help refer to ong r weight limits for someone boxing. One hundred and twenty six for Featherweight. One hundred and sixty for Middleweight. Heavyweight is anything over one hundred and ninety,"  
"Boxing matches are separated in to weight classes, huh?" Emiko smirked.  
"When Ippo was a Heavyweight, he was considered to be at his peak," Shinji said, "Punches and stances were created by him. He created the punches like the Guardcrusher, Straight Smash, Ippo Upper, Ippo Counter, Ippo-Dempsey Roll, Widowmaker, Ippo Flicker, Ippo Corkscrew, and Ippo Shotgun. That's just a the ones I could recall off the top of my head. He's also known for perfecting several stances. The one you're seeing is the Ippo Peek-a-Boo,"  
Emiko was very impressed. She could hear the respect and admiration Shinji had for Ippo from the sound of his voice as he spoke of the man. She couldn't help but wonder what would happen if Ippo and Ranma fought. However, given the different worlds, Ranma being a martial artist and Ippo being a boxer, if either of them fought, one or the other would be out of their element.  
"It's the Hitman stance!" the crowd cheered.  
The two of them looked forward to see Ippo adopting a different stance. It consisted of him pointing his left shoulder forward and to the left of his opponent, elbow bent at a ninety degrees angle, left hand by his waist. His right hand was held up right by his chin, elbow close to the body. Both of his legs were spread wide apart. It looked like a combination of a defensive and offensive stance.  
The opponent, seeing the stance, took a few steps back.  
Ippo inched forward.  
The audience members held their breath, wondering what how the opponent would go about handling this change of events. "C'mon," Ippo said, smirking, even enjoying the thrill of being in a ring, even if it was a sparring session. The last time he fought in the ring in a sparring session was over two months ago, "You're going to have to get used to the a Flicker Jab if you wanna beat your opponent next month,"  
The opponent grumbled something about him not having to worry about his opponent being even half as skilled as Ippo.  
Shinji and Emiko watched intently as the opponent dashed in for an attack only to be warded off when Ippo executed several jabs with his left arm. The opponent managed to dodge three of the jabs before getting hit by the forth one and sent staggering backwards, hurt.  
Emiko's eyes widened as she noticed the effectiveness of those jabs.  
Because they're from that position, that jab is very hard to read, Emiko thought. Even though it's a jab, it has speed and power. I heard something about a Flicker Jab. Is that the Ippo Flicker? His reach seems to actually be a lot farther when he does that kind of jab. I don't understand. Ippo doesn't have a long reach yet his jab seems to be extended farther than his reach allows. How does he do it?  
"C'mon, show us the Ippo Flicker!" someone shouted.  
Hm, perhaps that's not it, she thought.  
Everyone watched as Ippo dashed forward and executed four consecutive Flicker Jabs and finished it up with a right straight punch. To everyone familiar with Ippo's prowess' expectation, the four jabs held the opponent in a defensive posture as he was forced to block those attacks. When the right straight punch hit his guard, it broke through, causing his right arm to end up being blown back and away from his body, leaving him open for a follow up attack.  
"Oh my god! Flicker Jab into Guardcrush!" several patrons cheered.  
"Oh no!" the opponent said.  
Ippo executed left hook punch right at his opponents head, hitting him in the temple of his headgear. The impact of the punch was so powerful that the man ended up flying across the ring where he bounced in to the ropes, and fell backwards and on to his back unconscious.  
The crowd cheered. Several people climbed in to the ring to help the unconscious opponent in to a sitting position. While he was in that position, someone pressed down and on his shoulder blades a few times which seemed to bring the guy out of unconsciousness.  
The entire group of people praised the head geared man for such an awesome fight. After several minutes, they began to scatter to go back to their training, glad at that unexpected distraction. Little did they know that Ippo randomly doing sparring sessions is what kept people coming regularly, because they didn't want to miss a day when they could see him fight.  
"The man seems to get more praise than Ippo who won," Emiko commented, hopping off the chair.  
Shinji was silent. There was this course of excitement that was flowing through his veins. He wondered how awesome it would be to get that kind of praise.  
Ippo was taking off his gloves as he approached the edge of the ring.  
"Whatcha think?" Ippo asked, smiling. He was glad he saw Shinji enter the gym. Having him see a fight like that would make him less shy about getting in the ring if the after effects was so positive even though one lost.  
"I-incredible," was all Shinji could say.  
"Would you be interested in giving it a try?" Ippo figure it couldn't hurt to try. Maybe he might have a change in heart.  
Shinji became visibly nervous, taking several steps back, "N-n-no. I-I can't,"  
Figuring the Shinji looked like he was about to make a run for the door, Ippo said, "Don't worry, I was just kidding,"  
"O-Oh," he said, breathing in relief.  
Gloves taken off, Ippo climbed out of the ring.  
"You guys ready for some training?" he asked.  
"Sure, I just hafta get changed," Shinji quickly said.  
Shinji quickly headed to the locker room to get changed, leaving Emiko and Ippo alone.  
"Um, it was a very exciting fight," she commented.  
Ippo smiled warmly, "Thanks,"  
Although he always liked getting praises, he had gotten used to it. It was praises from people that seemed to care little for boxing that meant a lot to him. He was aware that she knew martial arts really well so she had a critical eye and would be able to spot strengths and weaknesses where the average person would be unable to discern.  
"You have a very good guard," she said, not wanting an awkward silence, "Your entire upper body was very well guarded. I saw no openings,"  
"Thanks," Ippo smiled, "That's what I was intending for,"  
"Um, how long have you been doing this, um, boxing?" she asked curiously.  
"Ever since I was in high school," he said, "That was almost thirty years ago. I've been boxing for a while,"  
"That can explain how you got so good," she said, "It makes me wonder how good a fight would be between you and Ranma,"  
Ippo shrugged, "I really don't know. I don't know how good Ranma is. However, I don't need to see him or fight him to know that he'd be a very formidable opponent,"  
"I wouldn't mind seeing such a fight though," she had to admit, "However, I guess it would never be possible. You two fight differently. If Ranma fought you in his world, he'd be out of his element. It would be the same for the other way around,"  
"You do have a point there," Ippo gave a meek laugh. Shinji emerged from the locker room clad in his training attire. He walked up to the two of them, "Okay, I'm ready,"  
"Are you two still sore from Saturday?" he first asked.  
They both nodded. Shinji added, "However, we're nowhere near as sore as on Sunday. We spent the day t-together and walked around town to help alleviate the soreness,"  
"All right, the both of you two will start off doing jump-rope," Ippo said, "Do that for an hour. When you're done, spend a half hour doing the weightlifting exercises I showed you individually. Shinji, you'll be spending that time doing bench presses and military presses. Lift no more than eighty pounds on the bench press and the barbell on the military press,"  
"Okay," Shinji nodded.  
"Emiko, you'll be doing barbell curls and standing twists," he said, "Just use half the weight as what you used on Saturday,"  
"Okay," she said. Ippo liked those two. They didn't question his form of training, both of them knowing that they would not see immediate benefits and that it would be discovered much later on.  
"After you're done, go out and do some roadwork, just jog once around the block," he added.  
Shinji groaned.  
Ippo smirked, "Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Before long, you'll be doing ten miles with no problem,"  
"I dunno about that," Shinji highly doubted it. He was pretty damn sure that he would not be able to do that. It was hell just running once around the block. He'd die of a heart attack before he would be able to run even three times around the block.  
"Trust me," Ippo said.  
Shinji shrugged, "If you say so,"  
"When you guys are done, come and find me," Ippo said, "I'm going to teach the two of you the difference between power and strength,"

Shinji felt like he was going to pass out as he stopped to get some rest. Jogging with that damn weight vest made hell feel like some kind of vacation. Over nine and a half minutes had passed since he and Emiko started their roadwork. He was stopping at the exact same spot as he did last time, unable to go on anymore.  
"You're doing really well. You're about ten seconds faster than last time," she said. She didn't even know why she knew this or why she had bothered to keep track of Shinji's time in the mile.  
"R-r-really?" he gasped for air.  
Emiko nodded, "Yes. That's actually a vast improvement over last time,"  
"I-I don't feel any m-more improved than last time," he commented.  
Shinji forced himself back to his feet. His knees were buckling once against as he staggered to stay afoot. After a minute of resting, he continued on jogging, willing himself to jog the rest of the distance to the gym.  
Emiko smirked.  
Such discipline.

"There's a big difference between power and strength," Ippo began, wanting to give off a small explanation of the exercise he planned on showing Shinji.  
Ippo had showed Emiko a new exercise that would help build up her legs. Although she felt ridiculous having her hands behind her head as she did a squatting motion, she knew it was effective when she started feeling a burning sensation running up and down her thighs. She was expected to spend the next fifteen minutes doing that, resting between sets of ten repetitions, giving Ippo time to work on helping Shinji out.  
"The exercises I showed you was to help me determine your upper body strength," Ippo said, "Now, what I'm going to show you are a few exercises that will help determine your lower body strength. Once your strength level for your entire body is determined, we can go about doing clean and jerks and power snatches. They're exercises for building up your power,"  
Shinji listened intently.  
"The jump-rope you've been doing helped establish your balance," Ippo said, "And since you can no do it without tripping over your own feet, all you need to do is work on being faster with it. The bench press and military press was used to determine upper body strength. Once we determine your lower body strength, we can start training for real,"  
"S-s-start training for real?" Shinji's eyes widened, "W-what was all that stuff I've been doing,"  
Ippo smiled, "They were there to help establish a foundation on what you would be really doing,"  
Shinji nearly fell to the ground from shock. "Don't worry, you'll understand," Ippo grinned.  
Ippo gestured toward a rack that had an empty barbell on it at Shinji's shoulder height, "Over here, this is what you call a squat rack. What you see Emiko doing, that's what you're going to be doing. However, you'll be doing that with a barbell resting on your shoulders,"  
Shinji gulped.  
"All right, let's get started," Ippo said, "Let's find out your leg strength,"  
Reluctantly, Shinji walked forward and got under the barbell, prepared to do a squat. After fifteen minutes of doing squats, it was determined that Shinji's max squat strength was a hundred and sixty pounds.  
When Shinji replaced the barbell back on the squat rack, he had to allow himself to sit down, legs unable to support him.  
"Don't sit down," Ippo said, "Just keep standing. Just step in place and keep your legs moving. It helps flush out the acid build-up in your legs so that you won't be that sore tomorrow,"  
"O-okay," Shinji said, "Um, so, how'd I do?"  
"I figure you'd be able to do around double that," Ippo commented, once again disappointed. He really admired Shinji's dedication and drive but his body needed much work. Something deep inside him told Ippo that Shinji would become an excellent fighter but the strength he displays say otherwise. He was physically incapable of becoming a great fighter in a world where power played a huge factor in one's success. So why was Ippo's gut constantly telling him otherwise?  
"Oh well, it don't matter," Ippo shrugged, "Anyway, now that I know much you're capable of, I can start you off properly tomorrow,"  
"So, tomorrow is where the real training starts?" Shinji asked, dreading the thought of what was in store for him. However, he was quite proud that he had not once felt reluctant about actually going to the gym.  
Ippo nodded, "Yeah. After you get here, do the same exercises you did today all the way up until you're finished with your jogging. Just get me afterwards,"  
"Okay," Shinji said.  
"I'm done," Emiko said, breathing heavily as she approached the two of them. She regarded Shinji for a moment, very impressed with what she had observed him to do. She had finished doing the squatting exercise Ippo had showed her, which was exactly what Shinji had been doing except without the weights. If her legs felt like they were on fire without the use of weights, she'd hate to wonder how bad Shinji's legs felt right now.  
She glanced down at his legs where she could see them shaking.  
"Well, you guys are done for the day," Ippo smiled.  
Shinji and Emiko walked home. Shinji had his backpack slung over his shoulder as they walked.  
Emiko couldn't help but constantly steal glances at Shinji, wondering how the heck he was able to walk. She didn't know how much barbell weighed, but she saw the numbers on the plates that Ippo had placed on it right before Shinji gave that weight a try and failed. It had equated to a hundred and fifteen pounds. Whatever Shinji had done, it was at least that weight.  
"You okay?" she had to ask, feeling tormented from curiosity.  
Shinji nodded, "I'm okay. Walking home slower than usual really helps,"  
"You want to sit down and rest for a while?" she suggested.  
Shinji shook his head, "No. I'm actually supposed to do the opposite. It'll help flush out the acid build-up in my legs from the workout,"  
"Oh," she said. She knew that if she felt the way Shinji looked, she would had stopped to have rested, "Um, would you at least like me to hold your backpack?"  
"I'm fine," he said.  
"O-okay," Emiko said.  
"Oh yeah, I completely forgot, I'm supposed to explain boxing to you," Shinji said, "You don't know much about boxing or how it works,"  
Shinji went on to explain boxing in detail to Emiko as they walked home together.  
The next day, after they were done with their usual routine leading up to and after the jogging portion of the training, Shinji found himself ready for what Ippo had considered 'real training'.  
He and Ippo were in the weightlifting area. Emiko was close by, doing an exercise called lunges which consisted of hold some light dumbbells on each hand and stepping forward, bending the knees of the forward leg until it was at a ninety degrees angle before bringing herself back in to a standing position, only to step forward with the other leg. She was expected to repeat this exercise.  
"Have you ever heard of a clean and jerk or a power snatch?" Ippo asked initially.  
Shinji shook his head. He couldn't help but blush slightly, believing that those names had some kind of sexual connotation to them even though it was most likely unintentional.  
"They're two exercises are what you consider a powerlifting exercises," Ippo began, "They're not like the military presses or barbell curls or even bench presses which are weightlifting exercises. The former builds power while the latter builds strength,"  
Shinji looked somewhat confused as he scratched the back of his head, "Power and strength? Aren't they the same?"  
Ippo shook his head, "No. What I'm going to show you was actually taught to me by Boon, the guy who came outta hiding to challenge me shortly after I became Heavyweight Champion. He used an analogy to describe power and strength. Anyway, picture strength as the electricity of a car battery. Power is basically that huge jolt of electricity needed to power a car. You may have the electricity to keep a car running, but it means nothing if you don't have the power to turn it on. Power is basically that huge boost of needed strength. If you think of a bench press, that's exercise that requires both strength and power, more strength than power. You need the power to get the bar moving when it's right by your chest, but you need the strength required to keep it moving upward and letting it come down slowly again. Anyway, power is what is needed behind your punches to knock a guy out,"  
"Y-you learned this after you fought that guy Boon?" Shinji asked.  
Shinji nodded, "He was the one who taught me. He said I had really good strength but lacked the power to beat him,"  
"This was after you became the Champion he showed you?" Shinji asked.  
Ippo nodded.  
Oh, that explains why Ippo was said to have reached his peak after he became the Heavyweight Champion. It was because this Boon guy showed him those exercises, whatever they are, which was what made Ippo to be so good that the world considered him to have finally reached his peak. This was because Ippo after training with such exercises made him better than how he was before.  
"Anyway, lettme show you the first exercise, the clean and jerk," Ippo said.  
He walked over to the barbell that was on the floor in front of him. The barbell only had a two ten pound plates on each side which made it weigh eighty five pounds.  
"The clean and jerk is an exercise geared at building power," Ippo said. He spread his legs so that his feet were shoulder-length apart. Keeping his back straight, he bent and the knees and gripped the barbell in an overhead grip, the palms basically facing his legs, his hands shoulder-length apart as well. "From this position, you bring the barbell up to your shoulders in one motion," Ippo said, hoisting the barbell up so that it looked like it was resting on the front deltoids of his shoulders, his arms still on the barbell, palms facing toward the ceiling.  
"From this position, you power it up overhead," Ippo continued, bending slightly at the knees and then straightening them to create upward momentum for the barbell and his body as he brought the barbell up and overhead as described.  
Ippo held that position for a moment before he brought it down in the exact opposite was as he had lifted it.  
"Make sure you keep your back straight," Ippo said, "It's a pretty dangerous exercise and form is extremely important. You can slip a vertebrae disc if you do the exercise wrong,"  
Shinji gulped.  
"Give it a try," Ippo said, "I'll watch you for the next several repetitions to make sure you've got the form correctly. Once you do, you're on your own,"  
"O-okay,"  
Shinji was a fast learner. After two minor adjustments on Ippo's part, Shinji had gotten the form perfectly. When he was done with his sets, he looked very tired and looked to have run out of steam a couple of sets ago.  
"Excellent," Ippo said, "Now that you know how to do the clean and jerk, I'll show you how to do the power snatch,"  
He gestured for Shinji to step aside so that he may demonstrate.  
"The power snatch is similar to a clean and jerk but the legs play a big role in it," Ippo said, stepping in front of the barbell and gripping it in the exact same fashion as a clean and jerk.  
"In one motion, you use your legs and upper body to create the momentum to bring the barbell up to around shoulder height. However, rather than have it come to rest on your shoulders, when you're in a standing position, you actually bend at your knees so that you're really low to the floor so that the barbell is actually overhead,"  
Ippo demonstrated the moment. He used his entire body to power the barbell upward and allowed its upward momentum to give him the chance to quickly duck under the barbell while simultaneously locking his arms at the elbow while the barbell was overhead.  
"Now, from this position," Ippo said, "You simply make your way in to a standing position. Do it slowly because this is a dangerous position because you're actually using all the muscles of your upper body stabilizing the weight while it's overhead, keeping it from falling," Ippo made his way to a standing position with the barbell still overhead. He remained in that position for a second before he brought it down to the ground in the same fashion as he brought down the barbell in the clean and jerk.  
"There, that's the power snatch," Ippo said.  
He proceeded to remove a ten pound plate from each side of the barbell before he told Shinji to do emulate what he had just done.  
Shinji gulped as he walked up to the barbell and emulated what he had just seen. To Ippo's surprise, he got the form down perfectly on the first try. He then went about doing a few sets of it to completion. When Shinji was finished, he was beyond exhaustion.  
Emiko, whom had been doing lunges the entire time, had watched him do both exercises. She had nothing to say, never having seen something like that before. All she had to consider was that this was definitely an odd world to have people doing exercises like that.  
Emiko finished doing her lunges just a minute after Shinji was finished.  
Ippo, seeing this, smiled, "Well, perfect timing. You two are both finished,"  
Emiko rubbed at her thighs, "That exercise you showed me really burns, much like that exercise you showed me the other time,"  
Ippo nodded, "I know. If it doesn't than you're doing it wrong. However, I was watching you out of the corner of my eye and saw that you were doing the motions perfectly. That's why it burns so much,"  
"Um, am I going to be sore tomorrow?" she asked, a bit concerned. She didn't like being sore. Her arms still felt a bit sore from Saturday's training session.  
"Yep," Ippo said.  
Emiko sighed.  
"Well, what you have learned are basically all that you guys need to do," Ippo said, "You basically don't need my help anymore,"  
"That's all you're going to teach us?" Shinji was surprised.  
Ippo chuckled, "Of course not. However, what I showed you are what you two will be doing for the next month or the next few weeks. When you come to the gym, there's no need to come looking for me to ask what you do next because all that I've taught you is what you're going to be doing from now on,"  
Shinji said, "So what you want me to do is basically jump-rope, sit-ups, jogging, clean and jerks, and power snatches?"  
Ippo nodded, "Right. Emiko, yours is only slightly different. Instead of doing clean and jerk and power snatches, just do standing twists, squats, lunges, and dumbbell curls. The weights the both of you use are basically at your own discretion,"  
"Okay," Shinji and Emiko said.  
Ippo smiled, "You guys should take either tomorrow or Thursday off. Basically, from here on, just train for yourself. I'll be sure to observe you over the weeks. Once I see that you guys have done well, I'll start showing you some basics to boxing,"  
"Okay," they said.

"I'm gonna take tomorrow off," Shinji said to Emiko as the two of them headed off.  
Emiko turned toward him, "Y-you are?"  
She had been expecting to work out the next day.  
"Yeah, how about you?" he asked.  
"Um, I'll take tomorrow off I guess," she said after a moment.  
"Don't take the day off based on my decision," Shinji said, "If you wanna work out on Wednesday then go right ahead. You can take Thursday off,"  
"No, I don't mind," she replied, "I'll take tomorrow off as well," "Um, okay," Shinji said, a bit confused. She didn't really know why, but the enthusiasm for working out tomorrow seemed to have left her. She didn't like the thought of working out by herself. Even though the two of them trained side by side, they didn't actually train together save for jogging, where they could actually talk to each other. This was because Shinji could not talk when he was doing jump-rope since he seemed to have to concentrate quite a bit on it. Despite this, the knowledge that she would be training in an setting with basically complete strangers with no one familiar like Shinji around made training not seem quite as worthwhile.  
Shinji made the same mistake as he did not too long ago, not paying attention as he stepped down a curb to the street. The sudden drop in elevation caused him to stagger. Emiko called out his name, about to reach out to steady him.  
However, she reacted to slowly and ended up watching as Shinji did several hops on one foot, flailing his arms, trying to keep his balance. However, unlike last time, where he fell to the ground clumsily, he actually managed to regain his balance.  
She couldn't help but smirk. It looked like Shinji had did some kind of weird dance when he was trying to regain his composure. It was definitely funny.  
"I-I didn't fall," Shinji said, proud of himself.  
"I notice," she said.  
"Yes! I didn't fall!" Shinji shouted, "I didn't fall!"  
For once, he had managed to actually prevent himself from falling. He had felt like a klutz the past week ever since he started wearing the weight vest. This was the first time he had stumbled and had been able to regain his balance. He had fallen down flights of stairs, walked in to walls, gotten entangled in jump-  
rope, and even fallen flat on his face all throughout the week, every time while trying to regain his balance. This was the first time he had managed to succeed.  
"I didn't fall!" Shinji said happy, turning to face Emiko.  
Emiko looked at Shinji oddly. There was no need to be ecstatic over something such as not falling. Even if he didn't fall, the fact that he was clumsy enough to had almost fallen should be considered embarrassing.  
Unfortunately, Shinji wasn't paying attention as he walked backwards and his feet hit in to the curb of the other side of the street. He ended up tumbling backwards where he fell on to his backpack, spilling its contents over the sidewalk.  
"Damn," he muttered, looking up at the sky.  
Emiko, knowing Shinji wasn't hurt, giggled.

Wednesday rolled around. Shinji suddenly found himself with a bit of free time. He had came home with Asuka and Rei at a little after four in the afternoon. Since he had recently taken tests in all of his classes, he didn't need to study right away. He also didn't need to worry about sparring against Ranma until after dinner, giving him a good three or so hours of time to kill.  
"Hey, Shinji," Ranma said as he came down the stairs.  
"Oh, hey, Ranma," Shinji said.  
"Taking the day off?" Ranma asked, walking by him and heading in to the livingroom.  
Shinji nodded, following suit. Once in the livingroom, he saw Lina sitting on the couch watching television.  
"You're such a couch potato," Ranma commented at Lina. Although the other day's incident with her shooting a fireball in his face would had easily made Ranma angry enough to send her pack and back to her own world, it was because it was his fault that he had made her do so that made himself allow her to remain.  
"There's nothing to do on this world," she replied, not even bothering to look away from the television screen.  
"So head home," Ranma grinned.  
"Maybe another time," Lina retorted.  
"Bah," Ranma snorted in annoyance. He walked by her and headed off in to the kitchen to get something to eat. He ate fifteen minutes ago and was hungry already.  
Shinji smirked. He wondered how often Lina and Ranma fought. The last big fight that occurred was when Lina blew Ranma out through the livingroom wall. That kind of reminded Shinji of something.  
Why was the hole in the wall already patched up when Ranma said he needed nails to finish the job, he thought. He didn't dwell on that thought much. Ranma probably found some extra nails while he and Emiko had been in town looking for something.  
Shinji glance at the screen and noticed a commercial for a new movie that opened up last Friday. It was about a novel trilogy that was made in to a movie. The movie was about a man cursed with immortality and his tragic life as he went about trying to achieve his ultimate goal, death. The movie was based on the first book and shared the same name, 'Dawning of Immortality'.  
Ah, I can go watch a movie, he thought. I've been wanting to see that. I thought it comes out next week. I read that series and really liked it. I wanna see how good a movie version of it looked like.  
He definitely had the money since he had remembered to ask Ranma for some spending money that Friday night.  
Seeing movie sounded like a good idea.  
Shinji looked at his watch. It read four-thirty. The movie was going to start in half an hour.  
He muttered to himself. He felt a bit sad that he was alone. A movie-going experience was usually more enjoyable if there was someone to accompany him. Emiko and Asuka had been busy sparring each other. Rei wanted to do her homework. Lina was too intent on watching televisions. Akane and Luna weren't home, having gone out to visit their friends like Misato and the others. Ranma had been the only one free and available to go to the movie.  
Shinji smirked, recalling the reason why Ranma didn't want to go see.  
Ranma had laughed, "The only movie I'd ever see is if they ever made a movie about my life and the adventures I went though. Heck, the crap I went though probably wouldn't fit in to a single movie. It'd need to be done in to an anime series or somethin' like that,"  
Shinji chuckled. Ranma's reasoning did seem rather believable. Considering the adventures he had been on and the things he had seen, whatever action movie he saw, no matter how intense or action-packed, would bore him.  
Shinji walked up to the ticket counter and paid for his ticket.  
"The movie is rated 'R' so I need to see some ID," the ticket girl his age said. She had glasses and had blond hair done up in a pony-tail.  
"I'm over eighteen. Can't you tell?" Shinji said, a bit surprised. "Sorry, but I'm still going to have to see some," she said.  
Shinji reached in to his pocket and pulled out his wallet, grateful that he actually had a driver's license. The girl took the wallet and looked at it. After a moment, she was satisfied at the identification and handed it back to him.  
Shinji paid for his ticket and headed in. Inside, Shinji looked at his watch. It was only a minute after he last looked at it. He had plenty of time to get some refreshments. However, he stopped when he realized eating anything from there would ruin his diet. Actually, it'd probably counteract all the training he had been doing up until this point. I can get some bottled water though, he thought.  
Shinji walked up and waited on line. As he waited, he heard someone call his name.  
"Shinji?"  
Shinji looked around. His gazed stopped when he found himself looking at Sumi. She had spotted him while she was waiting on the line. He couldn't help but notice that she had changed her look, her hair now wavy instead of straight like it usually was.  
"S-Sumi? W-what are you doing here?" he asked.  
"What do you think?" she asked, smirking a bit.  
Shinji blushed. That was a stupid question. "Who're you here with?" he asked, figuring the family behind here wasn't hers.  
"I'm here by myself, she answered. She didn't bother to mention that she was supposed to be here with her boyfriend Tou, but because he had something that came up that stopped him, she had decided she might as well go see the movie anyway. She knew Tou didn't want to see it anyway and wouldn't mind her having seen it without him.  
"Which movie are you here to watch?" she asked.  
"Dawning of Immortality," he answered, "I read the trilogy,"  
Sumi's eyes widened, "You, too?"  
"Um, yeah," he said nervously.  
The customer in front of Shinji received his order. Shinji was forced to pause to order what he wanted, bottled water. After he got it, he walked off to stand by Sumi as she waited on line.  
"Do you think you're going to like it?" Sumi asked, "If it's half as good as the first book, it'll be great,"  
"I hope it's good," Shinji nodded.  
He waited off by the side why Sumi got her order, a bottled water and a box of candy he didn't recognize nor care to try out.  
"Um, well, I guess I'll see you after the movie," Shinji said, heading toward the entrance to theatre playing the movie.  
"Wait," she called out.  
"Hm?" he turned back toward her.  
Sumi figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if he wanted to watch it with her. It wasn't as if her boyfriend was there. Besides, it was his own damn fault for not being there. However, all she was interested was in company. Watching a movie with someone, even if it was a classmate she didn't know all that much about, was better than watching it alone.  
"You want to watch it together?" she asked.  
"I guess,"

new stuff 9/9

Do I put my arm around her, Shinji wondered. He remembered seeing on television that if a guy and a girl were to go to a movie together, the guy is expected, no, obligated to put his arm around the girl. However, he didn't know what he was supposed to do if the girl was already in a relationship. He had never had a girlfriend before and really wouldn't mind having one. Sumi seemed like a person he would be glad to have as a girlfriend. However, she was with someone. What was he to do?  
Oddly enough, Shinji found himself even more confused when Sumi, caught up in the moment, forgetting who she was with, actually leaned her head toward Shinji, resting it slightly on his shoulder.  
Shinji gulped. What am I to do, he continued to wonder. What would Ranma do in a situation like this? Damn, he's definitely been in situations like this before but I have no idea how he had reacted.  
He noticed a faint smell of shampoo in Sumi's hair. It smelled nice.  
Ranma would back off, Shinji thought. If I had a girlfriend, I would not want some guy hitting on her. But wait, if I'm that supposed guy, then does that mean I'm hitting on her? She asked me to join her.  
"Um, Sumi," Shinji said.  
"Hm?" Sumi asked softly, enjoying his company.  
"I-I t-think you're mistakening me for T-Tou," Shinji said.  
The comment made Sumi suddenly realize her mistake. She had suddenly forgotten that she was with Shinji. She was grateful that it was dark in the movie theatre because she blushed a terrible shade of red.  
"S-sorry," she stammered. She should had noticed when she had tilted her head over and felt that Shinji's shoulder was actually lower than Tou's shoulder. Because of Shinji's size, her head had actually fit better resting against Shinji's shoulder than Tou's.  
"I-it's okay," he said.  
Sumi quickly turned her attention back on to the movie, feeling very embarrassed.  
Shinji resumed watching the movie. Even though he did the right thing, he couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed in himself.

Shinji and Sumi emerged from the movie theatre a little past around seven, both of them having thoroughly enjoyed watching it.  
"They did that really well," Sumi commented, "Who would've thought that the guy was immortal because he was a walking God,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Yeah,"  
"It was so cool how all those fallen Angels were attacking him trying to kill him so they could become gods themselves," she said, "The effects were great. I held my breath several times through the movie, like when he was surrounded by all those Angels. I was actually secretly wishing that the main character remembered how to control his powers,"  
Shinji couldn't help but laugh. Ranma was so correct. Although the movie was very exciting and will most likely be considered one of the greatest action movie all-time, it paled in comparison to that adventure Ranma had when he and Rei were merged as one person. It seemed fact was stranger than fiction.  
"What's so funny?" Sumi asked.  
Shinji waved a dismissive hand, "Nothing,"  
"How close do you think it was to the book?" she asked, "I think it was exactly like how the book described. The director did an excellent job portraying many of the scenes,"  
Shinji nodded, "I definitely agree there. When I read about the hero being surrounded by all those Angels, I couldn't help but envision virtually exactly like what I saw in the movie. I was actually really scary how close it was,"  
"I agree," she said, feeling so at easy with Shinji. It was really nice being with someone that actually read that trilogy. They had talked slightly while they waiting for the movie to start and she had found out that the books Shinji had read were very much like her own. Her boyfriend definitely didn't like to read. He probably never voluntarily read a book in his life.  
The sound of screeching tires could be heard as a familiar McLaren F1 came to a halt right by the front of the theatres.  
The blood from Sumi's face drained as she easily recognized that it was her hot-tempered boyfriend's car. When she saw him exiting the car and beginning to approach the two of them, anger in his eyes, she quickly turned toward Shinji.  
"I-I can explain," she quickly said, running forward. It wasn't that she was worried that she was worried he was thinking that she was seeing someone behind his back but for her concern that Tou would seriously injure Shinji.  
Tou sneered at her as he moved her to the side. He was fuming. He had called her dorm and had found out that she had stayed to watch the movie. When he found out when the movie let out, he had wanted to surprise her by coming and picking her up. However, the surprise was ruined when that twerp Shinji didn't heed the advice given to him to stay away from his girlfriend.  
"I told you to stay away from my girl!" he shouted.  
Shinji stood defiantly. There was no way he could back down. A fight was going to happen no matter what. However, he had to try.  
"Look, before you misunderst-," Shinji began, bringing his hands up in front of him.  
Tou didn't bother trying to hear an explanation, choosing a better more familiar approach. He decked Shinji, punching him right in the face before he had a chance to react. Shinji's ended up staggering backward where he pivoted around and fell down to his hand and knees. "Tou, what'd you go an do that for?" Sumi shouted at him, very concerned for Shinji. She wanted to rush to Shinji's side to make sure he was all right but was worried it would only make Tou angrier.  
H-he punched me, Shinji thought. He was seeing white spots. The punch really hurt.  
Shinji brought a hand up to his face and touched his right left eyebrow, where he had been struck. He looked at down at his hand when he brought it away and noticed blood. The punch had been hard enough that it and left a deep gash on Shinji's face.  
"I-i-it's a-all a-a m-m-misunderstanding," Shinji stammered, wanting to give Tou one last chance. Shinji staggered to his feet. This surprised Tou a bit since he figured the twerp would have been knocked out cold. However, he didn't bother to stand there in surprise.  
He punched Shinji once again in the side of his jaw, sending him falling back down to the ground and on his hands and knees again.  
"Stop!" Sumi shouted at Tou, jumping in front of him.  
Shinji spat. It was nothing but blood. His jaw hurt, the interior of his mouth cut badly. Forgive me, Ranma, Shinji thought. I tried. I really tried. Shinji spat the blood out again. He got back to his feet, his hands clenched in to fists.  
"You messed with the wrong person," Shinji sneered, getting to his feet, rubbing the trickle of blood from his lips with the back of his hand. Shinji got in to a battle stance.  
"Get a look at him," Tou commented toward Sumi, jerking a thumb toward the Shinji, "This guy's gonna fight me,"  
Sumi, angry at Tou, turned her head away from him.  
She glanced toward Shinji. She didn't know what to think. Shinji was significantly smaller and lighter than Tou. "I dare you to punch me again," Shinji sneered.  
Tou laughed.  
"Boy, I'm gonna make you regret those words," Tou grinned.  
Tou dashed toward Shinji and punched at him, intent on knocking the twerp out once and for all.  
Shinji swayed backwards at the very last second, causing Tou to miss with his punch. When he swayed back forward, he used his own momentum to do a quick side chop to Tou's throat, hitting him right in the Adam's apple.  
Tou made a choking noise, his eyes widening as he suddenly found himself unable to breathe. A sense of panic overcame him as started coughing, trying to gasp for air.  
With Tou in a state of panic, Shinji stepped forward and punched him right in the solar plexus, causing the large man to keel forward, falling down to his hands and knees, the wind knocked out of him.  
Shinji sneered as he regarded the back of Tou's head. His hands were clenched in to fists and he was seriously tempted to bring down a devastating elbow on the back of his opponents unguarded head and knocking him out. After a moment of contemplation, Shinji decided against it. Tou was basically incapacitated and there was no way he could continue on fighting. Shinji knew he had already won the fight. Shinji turned his attention toward Sumi, "I'm sorry, but I had to do that. I did that in self-defense,"  
Sumi was shocked. She was speechless and was unable to form any coherent words. She couldn't believe she had just witness someone as small as Shinji beat a guy Tou's size. Tou was a very large guy and he had never been beaten in a fight so quickly and easily before, especially against an opponent much smaller than him.  
"I'm gonna get going now," he said.  
"Um, o-okay," she managed to actually say.  
"Your boyfriend's an asshole," Shinji commented, "He's bad news,"  
Without saying anything else, Shinji headed home.

Shinji entered the house via the backdoor, heading straight for bathroom. He didn't know how bad the cut on his face was but he had a feeling it was pretty bad. Besides, he didn't want everyone to make a fuss about it.  
Grateful that it wasn't in use, he entered and looked at the medicine cabinet mirror. He was surprised to see that it rather bad, a long trail of blood running down the side of his face.  
He opened up his mouth and looked at the interior of his cheek. It was all cut up but the bleeding had still stopped.  
"I guess it looks worse than it actually was," Shinji said, spitting out just a slight bit of blood, "I'll ask Luna to heal me,"  
Shinji wiped the blood away and cleaned out his mouth.  
Once done, he headed out of the bathroom where made his way through the house. Luna was probably in the kitchen with Akane. He'd have to find a way of getting her away from Akane without seeing him.  
Like he had expected, he found her in the kitchen, helping Akane finishing dinner. Both of their back were toward him, Akane by the stove while Luna by the sink.  
"I'll be right back," he heard Luna say to Akane.  
"Okay,"  
Shinji couldn't believe his luck. He quickly stepped off to the side to get Luna's attention when she emerged from the kitchen.  
"What happened, got in a fight?" Luna asked him softly the moment she emerged from the kitchen.  
Shinji was a bit surprised. How'd she know he was there.  
"I knew you wanted to get my attention," Luna smiled.  
"Oh," he said. He didn't bother to question how she knew he had wanted to talk to her without Akane knowing But then again, Ranma had that knack of knowing when someone needed to talk to him in private without actually needing to be asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I got in a fight,"  
She learned forward to regard the cut on Shinji's face. It was slowly starting to bleed again. Since there was extra blood flow in the head, wound around the face tended to bleed more.  
She smiled warmly, "You want me to heal you?"  
Shinji nodded, "That'd be much appreciated,"  
"You want me to just heal the cuts in your mouth or heal that and the one on your face as well?" she asked.  
"H-how'd you-" he began. He thought for a moment before saying, "Um, I guess you can heal both," Luna laughed, "I can't believe you needed to even contemplate. I guess guys really don't mind or prefer having scars on their face,"  
Shinji gave a slight blush.  
Luna held a hand forward by Shinji's temple and said a quick word. Her hand glowed as Shinji felt the pain from the cuts in his face and inside of his cheeks abate. Before long, the pain disappeared.  
"T-thanks," he said. Although she had healed him once before, it was still shocking the powers of healing.  
"Well, I'm off to help finish dinner,"

Ranma woke up at his usual time the next day, ready for his morning jog.  
He wondered if Luna was going to join him jogging today. Only a few days had passed since he had talked to her and she saying she was willing to join him. However, she had said she wanted to take a few days to get used to the world again before going jogging with him.  
"Good morning," Ranma heard a soft voice as he emerged from the house.  
Ranma turned toward the voice and was pleasantly surprised to see Luna standing right by the side of the front door. He regarded her for a moment and noticed that she was dressed in some sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Since it was so early in the morning, it was still chilly out and she needed to keep warm.  
"I'm up to going jogging," she smiled.  
"All right!" Ranma said, a bit more enthusiastic than even he expected.

Shinji found Sumi standing in front of 'D Cluster' as he approached the building. He couldn't help but look around and wondering if her boyfriend was around. A quickly glance around the surrounding area made him come to the conclusion that the guy was nowhere around.  
"Um, morning," Shinji said, approaching her. He looked at his watch and noticed that they had around ten minutes until the first class started.  
"M-morning," she said, somewhat nervous.  
"Look, I'm sorry I did that to your boyfriend but he left me with no choice," Shinji said, feeling the need to apologize and explain himself, "It was all in self-defense,"  
"No, I should be apologizing," she said, "It was my fault he attacked you. It was because you and I were together and he thought-"  
Shinji nodded, "I know. Is he okay?"  
Sumi nodded, "Yeah. It took him around fifteen minutes before he was able to walk correctly but when he got his wind back, he drove me back home,"  
"That's good to hear," Shinji said. As much as he would had like to had caused serious harm to the guy, he would not be able to live with himself if he found out he had serious hurt someone.  
"What did you do?" she asked curiously, "I saw you hit him twice and he just went down and didn't get back up," She knew Shinji was smaller than Tou yet had managed to get up after being struck twice. Tou had been struck twice as well, and by someone much smaller than him, and had been incapacitated.  
"I hit him in some vital spots," Shinji answered, "I was trained to attack those spots," Oddly enough, he had totally forgotten that he had been wearing a vest at the time. It wasn't until he was on his way home did he come to the sudden realization that he had actually beaten an opponent while handicapped. But then again, considering the vital points struck, anyone could had won that fight, even if the guy was much weaker than Shinji when he struck those points "It seemed to have worked," Sumi said.  
"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but your boyfriend deserved what he got," Shinji snorted a bit.  
"He did," she agreed.  
"I dunno why you're with him," he shrugged, "But hey, if you two are in love, then what am I to say,"  
Sumi became silent. Were they in love? They only met at the beginning of the semester. She had move in to the dorms, away from home for the very first time. She had met like Tou in a the cafeteria just one week after starting school. He had been visiting a friend at Tokyo University. Tou wasn't in college, working full time in a neighboring as an apprentice mechanic. Two years her senior, he seemed like stability in an unfamiliar world. Besides, Sumi was much like her mother, Sayuri, and preferred companionship much over solidarity.  
"He should learn to watch his temper," Shinji also added. Oddly enough, he is reminded of Akane. Actually, now that he thought about it, Akane's temper tended to be more easily flared and much more violent. However, perhaps it was the fact that she was female that it was more tolerated.  
I think we have ourselves a double standard, Shinji thought.  
Sumi looked at her watch, "Oh, you're right. We should head in,"  
Shinji and Sumi emerged from 'D Cluster'. They were talking about the movie they had seen last night. They had talked about it during the times they were free in-between classes.  
Shinji said his farewell, intent on going to the Chinese restaurant to get his usual lunch. However, he found a nasty surprise when he and stepped out of the alcove in to the open and found three guys by the building, one of them him recognizing as Tou.  
"Oh no," the blood drained from Shinji's face. He knew what was up. Tou had assembled two of his friends to jump him.  
Sumi was a bit confused, wondering why Tou and two of his friends were there. When she recalled what had happened last night and Tou's hot-temperedness, it became evident to her what was going to happen moments after what Shinji had determined instantly.  
"A-are they-" she began to say.  
Shinji nodded, "They're gonna try and jump me,"  
Although he had fought multiple opponents before, he had never fought any so large. Both of the friends were just as large as Tou. Shinji didn't even have to ask to know that the one with the short-haired one to the right of Tou was a martial artist because of the way the man carried himself. There was a sense of confidence in him as he stood there.  
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sumi shouted toward Tou, running up to him.  
"Don't worry about it," he replied back to her, "This is between us and the twerp,"  
Shinji's fight-or-flight system kicked in, adrenaline coursing through his bloodstream. "I-I don't wanna fight you," Shinji shouted the distance between him and Tou.  
"Tough shit," Tou sneered.  
Shinji gritted his teeth. He couldn't believe that people like this existed. What was the point in fighting? There was no need for violence. He hated people who resorted in violence. It was obvious that this was some kind of ego thing.  
Shinji, not wanting to fight, turned toward the right and ran. It was better to run away in a situation like this. A fight could be avoided if he ran. He'd swallow his pride if it meant avoiding a fight.  
Because of the weighted vest, Shinji didn't get far, his legs too encumbered to be of any use. He knew he was in excellent shape and had the stamina and speed to outrun anyone chasing him. It was too bad he totally forgot about the weight vest he was wearing. Only people like Ranma and Akane could catch him in terms of outright running speed and stamina when he wasn't encumbered. Encumbered, anyone could catch him.  
"Where do you think you're going?" Tou sneered, catching up to him.  
Shinji found himself surrounded by the three guys. He kept his gaze on 'Short-  
hair', the man that was probably a skilled martial artist and the most immediate threat.  
To Shinji's surprise, he heard someone whistle.  
Everyone turned their attention toward the person approaching them. It was Ranma.  
Ranma walked straight toward the obvious leader of the three people, Tou. He didn't know who Tou was, but he knew what the guy's intention was and he didn't like it.  
"I hate people like you," Ranma sneered. He had come to campus to pay Shinji and Akane and Rei a surprise when he saw three guys chasing after Shinji and surrounding him.  
He couldn't believe the nerve of some people. He didn't know what was the situation at hand and what had led to this but he knew Shinji wasn't at fault.  
Ranma's stood face-to-face with Tou, their face inches from one another.  
"R-Ranma," Shinji said, shocked to even see him here.  
Everyone looked at Ranma and Tou as they faced each other. They were of the same height and even the same size. However, Shinji knew that Ranma was a whole lot stronger than his size indicated.  
"Who the hell are you?" Tou sneered.  
Ranma said nothing, choosing to remain right in front of Tou and invade the man's personal space. It became very evident when Tou took a step backwards to allow a bit of spacing. Unfortunately for him, Ranma stepped forward, continuing to remain deep within Tou's personal space.  
"C'mon, do something," Ranma sneered, "I fucking dare you,"  
Tou took another step back, Ranma taking a step forward. Tou found it very frustrating. He didn't like having someone standing so close to him. It was as if this man, whoever he was, was mocking him.  
Tou's two friends, able to realize what was going on and regain their composure, dashed toward Ranma from either side.  
Ranma dodged the punch from the first short-haired guy and seized the guy's extended forearm with one hand. In one fluid motion, Ranma wrapped his other arm around the seized arm, bringing his hand to rest right by the opponent's armpit. The motion had caused the guy to fall to the ground on to both knees, his entire arm bent at an awkward angle, the shoulder seized and actually torqued backward well beyond it usual range of motion.  
Ranma smirked. If he administered any pressure on the shoulder, it would be popped right out of its joint. Even though he knew this, he wanted to make his point clear.  
Since he only needed one arm to hold his opponent in that hold, Ranma freed his arm and brought it around the guy's head in a reverse headlock, the neck cranked backwards so that the opponent was actually able to see Ranma's back, his gaze upward toward the sky as well. Ranma had just put his opponent in a hold called the Dragon Sleeper, a hold that could easily break a guy's neck by cranking it backwards.  
Tou and the other opponent stepped backwards in disbelief at seeing their friend, a very skilled fighter, totally incapacitated. It didn't take a genius to know that Ranma could easily break their friend's neck and shoulder if he wanted to.  
"Now," Ranma said in a very calm voice, "Would you mind telling me what's the cause of this little situation?"  
Tou and the friend were stunned speechless.  
"Aren't you pathetic, needing two friends to help you settle your problems. What kinda man are you?" Ranma smirked toward Tou, knowing that it mostly had something to do with some kind of dispute between him and Shinji. Ranma released his hold on the short-haired guy. The guy quickly scooted forward on his hands and knees before quickly getting to his feet and running over to where Tou and his friend were standing before turning to face Ranma.  
"If you wanna have friends come to your aid in your dispute against Shinji, then so should he," Ranma smirked.  
"I'll remember this," Tou sneered, "You and the twerp're gonna to pay!"  
"What the fuck did you say?" Ranma blew his top. He couldn't believe the nerve of that guy. To think that he wouldn't learn just based on just seeing what Ranma was capable of doing. Some people needed to be taught a lesson. Ranma dashed forward, covering the distance between him and Tou in a split second.  
Tou's eyes widened was he found himself being lifted off his feet, barely able to breath as Ranma grabbed him by the neck with one hand and lifted him up.  
"Why dontcha say that again?" Ranma sneered in contempt as he watched Tou struggle to free himself.  
"L-let him go!" both friends said. However, they did not attempt to intervene to actually free him, keeping their distance.  
Tou had this panicked look on his face as he struggled to free himself, much to no avail. As he gripped his hands around Ranma's forearm, the muscles under the skin felt like he was gripping on to steel bridge cables, totally unyielding and rock-hard.  
"You know how to talk big," Ranma said, "Let's see you back up what you say,"  
Tou, reached in to the back pocket of his pants and pulled out a knife and stabbed toward Ranma's chest.  
Ranma wasn't one bit fazed as he grabbed the incoming blade between his index and middle finger. With a simple flick of the wrist, he pulled the blade away and threw to over his shoulder where it landed right by Shinji and Sumi.  
Sumi's eyes widened as she saw the knife. She had never figured her boyfriend carried a knife and was even crazy enough to attempt to use it on another human being like she had just seen.  
"Congratulations, asshole, you're going to jail," Ranma sneered. He turned toward Shinji, "Hey, Shinji, fetch me that knife. I'm gonna bring it with me as evidence,"  
Shinji did as he was told, walking over and handing the knife to Ranma.  
Ranma, still holding Tou by the neck, said, "Looks like I won't be able to stay to meet up with everyone. I'll see you at home,"  
"Um, o-okay,"  
"I-I never knew what kind of guy he was," Sumi said to Shinji. The two of them were waiting for Shinji's order to be made while they stood around in the Chinese restaurant.  
"I told you he was bad news," Shinji said, feeling bad at having to tell Sumi something along the lines of 'I told you so'.  
"But a knife...and to actually use it," Sumi said, tears swelling up in her eyes, "I-I thought I knew him. I-it's obvious that I did not,"  
Shinji regarded Sumi for a moment. She looked obviously distraught. Feeling a bit awkward, he placed a reassuring arm around Sumi. To his surprised, she didn't seem to shy away. Instead, she turned toward him and pressed her head in to his chest, crying.  
"It's okay," Shinji said in a reassuring voice.  
Sumi cried for a minute before she pulled away, composing herself. Now was not a time to be crying. Sure, she was a bad judge a character and her choice of boyfriend proved it, but everyone made mistakes.  
"I'm sorry," she said, trying to smile, "I shouldn't be bothering you about my problems,"  
"Don't worry about it," he gave a meek smile.  
Before long, Shinji's order was prepared. He paid for it and the two of them left the restaurant and began heading back toward campus. As to who was following who, neither of them knew.  
"I wonder what's going to happen to Tou?" she asked aloud.  
Shinji shrugged, "Probably jail time. I think what he tried was called aggravated assault, which is definitely reasons for going to jail,"  
"Good," she said.  
"Huh?" Shinji was surprised. He figured she would be upset. Her boyfriend was going to be in jail.  
"T-that means I don't have to see him again," she said after a long pause. Shinji looked at her, a bit confused.  
"I-I've been meaning to break up with him," she said, "I-I wanted to break up with him last night, when I saw what he did with you. What he did today was the last straw. I don't need someone like that in my life,"  
Shinji couldn't help but smile. It was as if Sumi had just been enlightened.  
"I don't need someone dangerous in my life," she said, a bit more confident.  
"That's good to hear," he said.  
"Who knows, he could be the type of person that could eventually kill someone," she added.  
Shinji became silent. The comment suddenly recalled a memory from his past. Shinji was actually a killer. He had killed his own father.  
"So, what are you going to do now?" she asked.  
"I have to meet up with someone," he said, "I usually eat while studying in the meanwhile,"  
"Oh. Okay," "What about you?" he asked.  
"I'm going to head back to my dorm," she replied. Because of what had occurred just before, she wanted to ask her housemate on what she should do. Her housemate should be back at the dorm by now.  
"Um, y-you want me to walk you back to your dorm?" he asked as if he were conditioned to ask such question whenever it required a girl going anyway while she was by herself.  
Sumi smiled slightly, "I'll be fine, but thanks anyway, It's just a short distance away,"  
"You sure?" he asked.  
"I'll be fine," she said, running off ahead, "I'll see you in class tomorrow,"  
"All right, take care,"

Ranma entered the gym shortly as Shinji and Emiko were finishing up their jump-rope. The two of them caught sight of him as he entered but continued on training, figuring he would see them eventually.  
They watched as Ranma caught sight of them and waved toward them. However, rather than walk over there, he headed over to where Ippo was and talked to him for a few minutes, indulging in some conversation before walking over to where they were.  
"Yo," Ranma said.  
"What are you doing here?" Emiko asked, continuing to do jump-rope. Shinji was silent, concentrating on jump-roping, content with simply listening. He was happy that he was able to do it without tripping on his own feet anymore. Emiko, who was doing jump-rope behind him, actually hopped at the same speed as him but actually had the jump-rope travel around her three times with every hop to his every one. Emiko had not only picked up jump-roping really quickly, but was also the second most skilled jump-roper in the entire gym, second only to Ippo. Of course, they never actually squared off to find out but it seemed to be general knowledge among the gym patrons that observed the both of them.  
"I was in the area," Ranma said, "How are you guys coming along?"  
"We're doing fine," Emiko said.  
Ranma observed Shinji for a moment, "Not bad. I figured you'd be tripping over your own feet,"  
"He used to," Emiko commented, "But he finally stopped doing. He's getting good at it,"  
"T-thanks," Shinji blushed. Unfortunately, Shinji had forgotten that he still needed to concentrate solely on the exercise. His feet ended up getting caught in the jump-rope, causing him to fall forward where he landed on his stomach, a very embarrassed look on his face.  
"Spoke too soon," Ranma grinned, "Sorry to have distracted you,"  
"It's fine," Shinji said, getting to an upright sitting position, "We were basically finished with this,"  
"What do you guy's plan on doing after this?" Ranma asked, "You have more to your training? It's only around five and you usually come home at six,"  
"We're about to go jogging," Shinji said, getting back up and hooking up the jump-rope on a nearby hook, "You wanna join us?"  
Emiko wondered about that. She couldn't help but wonder why she didn't feel all that enthusiastic about having Ranma along with her and Shinji as they did roadwork. Although she should be glad to have Ranma coming along, she couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed as well. She had grown used to jogging with Shinji, even if Shinji did jog at a snail's pace and had yet to actually run a mile without having to stop at least once to rest.  
Ranma glanced toward Emiko while she wasn't looking. He smirked as he turned toward Shinji and shook his head and said, "Nah, I just wanted to tell you about what happened to that guy I took to the police,"  
"Really? What happened?" Shinji asked, very interested in knowing about the results. He had been meaning to ask that to Ranma but had figured he would ask him after he got back home.  
"If convicted, that guy's gonna be serving five to ten years," Ranma smirked, "Turns out there was a warrant for his arrest. And not only that, but he has a track record of arrests,"  
"Really?" Shinji said, somewhat unsurprised.  
"Yeah," Ranma nodded, "Stuff like aggravated assault, misdemeanors, and drunk driving to name a few. The list goes on. Anyway, if convicted, he'll be going away for awhile,"  
Shinji smirked. He didn't feel all that sorry for the guy. He did try to stab Ranma, afterall. Of course, it was too bad that Ranma was the wrong person on which try such an attempt.  
"Who are you talking about?" Emiko asked, feeling left out of the conversation.  
Ranma smirked, "Don't worry about it. Shinji'll tell you about it when you guys go jogging. It's really interesting too. The guy wanted to beat him up. Anyway,"  
"R-really?" Emiko was surprised.  
"He'll tell you about it," Ranma smirked, "Anyway, I'm gonna get going,"  
"What are you going to do now?" Shinji asked, "Where are you headed?"  
"I'm on my way back home," he said, "Gonna go get myself something to eat,"  
"Okay," Shinji shrugged. He shouldn't be surprised. Ranma always ate.  
Ranma said goodbye and walked off, saying goodbye to Ippo before leaving the gym.  
"So, who's this guy that wanted to beat you up?" she asked.  
For some reason, she felt anger toward that guy she didn't know.  
The next day, Shinji and Sumi were gathered in front of the classroom of their first class. Class would not start for another ten minutes.  
"It seem your boyfriend, I mean your ex-boyfriend, might be spending five to ten years in jail if he gets convicted," Shinji told Sumi, regurgitating what Ranma had mentioned to him at the gym yesterday.  
"R-really?" Sumi was surprised. Her talk with her housemate had actually resulting in her being told much the same but it still surprised her.  
"Did you know he also had an arrest record as well?" Shinji asked.  
"H-he does?" Sumi's eyes widened, "I-I never knew that. He said he never got in trouble with the law before,"  
Shinji smirked slightly, "It seemed quite the opposite,"  
Hearing her reason for not knowing just how bad a person Tou was made him realize that she was pretty na ve. Of course, that was understandable. There usually were a lot to people than meets the eye. For instance, there was a lot to Shinji that very few people know, like the fact that he used to pilot and EVA, fought Angels, and even helped God in a time of need.  
"I can't believe it," Sumi commented, "I-I was dating a criminal. T-that's unbelievable," Sumi felt her chest and noticed that her heart was racing. She was very scared. She couldn't believe that she had come in contact with someone so dangerous. Not even half a year ago, she had been living a sheltered life, living in a very upscale and crime-free neighborhood, going to a private high school, never exposed to even people a fraction as dangerous.  
Shinji shrugged. To an extent, he couldn't help but be reminded of Emiko. Emiko was a bit na ve too, unfamiliar with this world. However, where Emiko is na ve to this world's society and social structure, Sumi was unfamiliar with this world's people and how bad some of them could be.  
"Well, I figured I'd remind you," Shinji said, "If he doesn't get convicted and is free, whether you choose to stick around him is up to you. I suggest you stay way,"  
Deep down inside, he hoped Sumi would do the right decision and stay away from Tou.

Shinji was in for a surprise the next day when he was on his way back to campus after getting his meal at the Chinese restaurant and bumped in to Priss in the exact same fashion as last week. Once again, he ended up falling backwards and on to his backside, a scared look on his head. He had been with Sumi and had reacted instinctively pushed with Sumi and had actually pushed her away from danger at the last second when he saw Priss. It wasn't until he recognized that it was Priss did he realize what had just happened. "I don't think I'll ever get used to doing that," Priss smirked as she removed her helmet.  
"Jeez," Shinji said, getting to his feet.  
He looked down and noticed that he had once again dropped his food and its contents had been s pilled.  
Sumi, whom hand managed to assess what was going on, looked toward Shinji and the motorcycle rider.  
Her eyes widened when she recognized who it was. It was one of her favorite singers, Priss Asagiri.  
"Oh my god!" she shrieked in surprise, quickly running forward to get close to her, "Shinji, it's Priss from 'Priss and the Replicants'!"  
Priss regarded the young girl. He hadn't noticed her before. When she heard her call Shinji by his name, she suddenly realized that she had indeed been with Shinji. She figured he happened to be walking by a girl when she came up to surprise him and wasn't actually walking with her.  
"Oh, you two were together?" Priss said, "I'm sorry,"  
"I-it's fine! C-c-can I have your autograph?" she said, fumbling with her backpack for some paper and a pen.  
Priss narrowed her eyes at Shinji, "Hey, Shinji, why aren't you carrying her backpack? What kinda man are you?"  
"She said it was fine that she carry hers," Shinji shrugged.  
Sumi stopped to look at Shinji and then at Priss and then back at Shinji again. She had a very confused look on her face. She could had sworn she heard Priss, a superstar, refer to Shinji by his name.  
"Priss and I are friends," Shinji said, jerking a thumb toward her.  
"Y-y-you two know each other?" Sumi still looked confused.  
Priss smiled, "I was about to ask the same thing,"  
"Oh, lettme introduce the two of you. Priss, this is Sumi," Shinji gestured at the young girl next to him.  
"How're ya?" Priss nodded toward the obvious fan, taking the paper and pen Sumi had produced from her backpack.  
Since it was obvious that Sumi and Shinji knew each other, Priss didn't mind giving Sumi an autograph.  
Priss smirked, giving Shinji a mischievious grin, "Shinji, I never knew you had a girlfriend. Well, it's about time,"  
"G-g-girlfriend!" Shinji blushed a deep shade of red, "S-she's my c-  
classmate!" Sumi was blushing as well as she said, "W-we're only classmates,"  
The comment Priss made Sumi realize that Shinji had no girlfriend. The first thing that passed through her head was why he didn't have one. He was a nice guy and very considerate and even chivalrous so it should be natural that a girl would want to snag him up as a boyfriend.  
"I'm just joking around," Priss laughed.  
"W-what are you doing here?" Shinji asked, wanting to change the subject. He was still flushed with embarrassment, "W-where were you headed?"  
Priss shrugged, "Guess,"  
"Another gig?" he asked. She nodded, "It's over in Mizunkan Stadium,"  
"When?" he asked.  
"At ten," she said, "I'm going there now to help with the set-up and make sure everything's okay. I plan on jetting there right after dinner,"  
"Oh yeah, today's Friday," Shinji said. He suddenly looked very forward to being home tonight. He, like everyone else, loved the weekly dinner they had as a group.  
"I'd love to stay and chat, but I need to get going," Priss said. She reached in to her pocket and pulled out two tickets, "Shinji, I know you don't like concerts, but if you'd like, here're two tickets for tomorrow's concert. It's at Tokyo Stadium at the same time,"  
Shinji took the two tickets. He looked at them.  
"They're backstage passes," she said, "You can come visit me backstage,"  
Shinji said, trying to think of a way to graciously decline, "Um, thanks..."  
"Well, I'll get going now," Priss said, putting her helmet back on, smiling to Sumi, "It was nice meeting you Sumi. Shinji's a nice guy, definite boyfriend material,"  
"P-Priss!" Shinji stammered, blushing once again.  
His words weren't heard because Priss revved the engine and sped off, his voice drowned out by the roar of the engine.  
When the smoke from the tires cleared up, Shinji is left with a rather annoyed look on his face and Sumi with a starry-eyed look on hers.  
"Oh man, I can't believe it, that was Priss Asagiri, she's even more awesome up close and in-person than on television," Sumi sighed. Today was definitely a day she would never forget. She met they Priss Asagiri.  
Shinji felt the urge to laugh. Priss seemed like a regular person to him. If he thought about it, several of the people that probably received a lot of respect and admiration from the populace he knew he saw as nothing more than close friends. Ritsuko was known for her MAGI computer, the most advanced computer in the world. Lisa was known for her knowledge in artificial intelligence and humanoid technology, the premiere authority in both fields. Ranma and Akane were the founders of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, the most widely integrated martial artist in the unarmed combat world. Ranma was also the owner of the most successful martial arts equipment chain in the world. All in all, Shinji knew some very prestigious people. And this didn't even count Luna Inverse, the most powerful magic user on her world. Nor Rei and Asuka, two individuals that piloted EVAs and fought against.  
Shinji held the tickets for Sumi, "Since you like Priss so much, why don't you take the tickets?"  
"Y-you're giving me the tickets?" Sumi gasped in surprise as she looked at the tickets.  
Shinji nodded, "Sure. You and a friend can go see it,"  
"Y-you don't intend to use the tickets?" she asked.  
Shinji shook his head, "Nah. I don't care much for concerts. You can use it. You'll probably find it much more useful than myself,"  
Sumi took a hold of the tickets. This seemed too good to be true.  
Shinji turned his attention toward the small pile of dropped food by his feet.  
"She ruined my lunch," "Shinji's got a girlfriend," Priss smirked as she and everyone else were gathered the dinner table for their traditional Friday dinner together.  
Emiko stopped her eating to look at Shinji.  
Everyone also turned their attention on to him.  
"Really?" Linna asked.  
"What kind of girl is she?" Sylia smirked.  
"She's very pretty," Priss smirked, "She has short brown hair and is petite, the perfect height so that she could rest her head against the crook of Shinji's neck and shoulder,"  
"Cool, Shinji finally has a girlfriend," Misato smiled, glad to see that Shinji was finally growing up to be a man.  
"S-she's not my g-girlfriend!" Shinji blushed a deep shade of red. Everyone, but Emiko, burst out laughing.  
She had remained silent.

Emiko said nothing as she and Shinji walked toward Makunouchi Gym the next day, Saturday. She had said very little since last night.  
"Something the matter?" he asked, noticing that she seemed a bit preoccupied. He had a funny feeling it was because she was still having problems beating Asuka. She probably believed all the hard work she was doing wasn't helping her out all that much in improving her skills.  
Shinji chose not to press the issue. She would tell him about her self-  
consciousness about being having trouble beating Asuka soon enough. As the two of them walk, Emiko stole a glance.  
Why did it bother me when Priss said Shinji had a girlfriend, Emiko was thinking to herself. It shouldn't matter to me. Actually, I should be happy for him. But for some reason, I feel bothered. Why? That should not be the case.  
The two of them arrived at Makunouchi Gym and entered, Shinji holding the door open for her, a gesture that reminded him very much of Ranma. She had a funny feeling Shinji didn't even realize that he was being courteous. However, it didn't matter if he realized or not since Emiko had realized it at the girl realizing a courteous gesture was what mattered.  
Entering the gym, the both of them went about doing their usual training.

Sumi paced back and forth in the livingroom area of her dorm. She had the cordless phone in her hands and a nervous look on her face. Her housemate, a girl Sumi's age with long blond hair, was lying on the couch, her patience starting to run out. It was around three in the afternoon and she really wanted to know if she could go to the concert or not, depending on if Shinji accepted.  
"Just call him," her housemate said, "It's just a phone call. How card could it be?"  
Sumi said, "It might be easy for you, Meito, but not for me,"  
"Fine, I'll make the phone call for you," the housemate named Meito got up off the couch and grabbed the phone out of Sumi's hands. She also grabbed the piece of paper that had Shinji's phone number.  
"No!" she quickly said.  
"Look," Meito said, "It took you a half hour to mutter the courage to call Information to get his number. I'm not going to sit around for the whole day while you try to muster the courage to call him,"  
"All right, All right, I'll do it," Sumi quickly grabbed the phone when she saw her housemate beginning to dial the number.  
"The concert starts at ten and I'd like to know if I can go with your or not," Meito said, "I really want to see it but I don't want to wait around hoping to go only to find out that that guy Shinji wants to go instead,"  
"Okay, I understand," Sumi said, "I-I'll call him,"  
"Good,"  
Nervously, Sumi started dialing the phone.

Shinji was tired as he and Emiko entered the house. They felt good. A three hour workout was a tad bit on the strenuous side, but it was nowhere near as long and strenuous a workout that they had last week, when they spent around six hours in there. A minute after entering, they heard the phone ringing.  
Shinji shrugged.  
"Um, aren't you going to answer it?" she asked.  
Shinji shook his head, "Nah. It's probably some solicitor. Let the answering machine answering,"  
Emiko, much like all females, was unable let the phone continue ringing. She had to answer it. Perhaps it was a phone call to say that she had won a large sum of money.  
"Um, h-hello?" she asked, emulating what she had seen others do. She understood that she should hear a voice on the other side.  
"Um, h-hello?" came a female voice.  
Who's this, Emiko immediately thought, not recognizing the voice.  
"Um, i-is Shinji there?" the voice asked timidly.  
"Yes," Emiko said, "Um, w-who's calling?"  
She remembered seeing Akane and Ranma asking that whenever it seemed like the phone call was for someone else in the house. Perhaps it was protocol so she didn't want to mess things up.  
"This is Sumi," came the answer.  
The grip around the phone receiver tightened. Sumi was the name Priss mentioned that was Shinji's girlfriend. For some odd reason, she found herself getting upset and she had no idea why.  
"J-just hold on one second," she stammered.  
Emiko turned toward Shinji, "I-it's for you,"  
"Who is it?"  
"I-it's Sumi?" she replied, not looking directly at him. She found herself looking more toward the floor than anything else.  
"Really?" Shinji was a bit surprised. He never expected to be receiving a phone call from someone. After a moment, something dawned on him. A girl was calling him. No girl from school had ever called and specifically asked for him. This was definitely a pleasant surprise.  
Emiko noticed the happy look on Shinji's face as he thanked her and took the phone from her.  
"Hello?" he asked nervously. He never had experience talking on the phone with a girl before that he didn't know. He had talked on the phone plenty of times with people like Sylia and Asuka and Rei all the time but they didn't count.  
Emiko didn't know what was being said on the other side but she could definitely hear the rather happy tone in Shinji's voice. Once again, she felt upset and didn't know why. She left Shinji to be alone.

new stuff 9/10

"Since there were two tickets, I was wondering if you wanted to go with me to the concert," Sumi said in to the phone, "Afterall, you were the one that gave me those ticket,"  
Shinji shook his head and he spoke in to the phone, "Nah. You can use both tickets,"  
After a second, Shinji told himself that he was an idiot for shaking his head since the person on the other wouldn't be able to see that gesture.  
"Are you sure?" she asked.  
"I'm sure," he replied, "Who do you plan on going with?"  
He didn't really care so long as it wasn't with Tou. Since he was still in jail awaiting his trail, no one having come to pay for his bail, Shinji knew that it would not be with Tou.  
"My housemate, Meito," came the reply, "She loves 'Priss and the Replicants',"  
"Cool," Shinji smiled, "You guys plan on going backstage?"  
"Of course," Sumi said, her voice barely containing her excitement, "Um, do you think Priss will be disappointed to see that you didn't come and that you gave the tickets to me?"  
Shinji shook his head again and said, "Nah. I'll call her cell phone and tell her,"  
Idiot, Shinji thought. Quit shaking your head. You're on the phone for God's sake. "You know her cell phone number?" Sumi was surprised. She was more surprised finding out this side of Shinji than when she found out about Tou's bad side.  
Shinji said, "Yeah. I don't call it much, but yeah, I know it,"  
"Who's that?" came a voice, Ranma's voice.  
Ranma had emerged from the livingroom and was on his way up to his room when he saw Shinji in the hallway.  
"A classmate," Shinji answered.  
"Oh," Ranma said, "I thought it was a solicitor. I wouldn'tve minded having some fun at the person's expense,"  
"I know," Shinji smirked. He cleared his throat, "Um, have you seen Luna?"  
Shinji shook his head, "No. I just got in,"  
"Okay, just checking," he said, shrugging a bit before heading upstairs.  
Shinji smirked. He wondered if Ranma planned on going jogging again. He had woken up a few times early in the morning and had happened to have glanced out the window and saw Ranma standing outside by the front gate as if waiting for someone. He remembered wondering what he was waiting for and found his answer when he saw Luna emerge to join up with him where they would go about jogging.  
Realizing that he had momentarily forgot Sumi was still on the phone, he quickly turned his attention back to the phone at hand.  
"Sorry about that, what were we talking about?" he asked.  
"Nothing too important," Sumi said, "Um, I guess I better get going. Thanks for the tickets, I really really appreciated it. Hold on. Oh, my housemate says she thanks you from the bottom of her heart as well,"  
Shinji smiled, blushing slightly, "It's no problem,"  
"Bye, I'll see you in class on Monday," she smiled.  
"You, too," he said.  
Sumi hung up the phone. She looked toward Meito who had a happy expression on her face.  
"You see, calling a boy isn't that hard,"  
Sumi blushed. Meito was right.

Emiko did her katas in the dojo. She wanted to clear her mind. "Shouldn't you be resting?" came a voice that startled her. She looked toward the entrance where she saw Luna, there leaning against the doorjamb. She was surprised to see Luna there. She hadn't even sensed the woman's approach. It was as if Luna had erased her complete presence of herself. It was either that or Emiko was really going soft.  
"I've got a lot on my mind," she replied, resuming her katas.  
Luna entered and walked over, taking a seat on one of the benches that lined the dojo wall. She crossed her leg, the gesture giving her a very mature look. It made Emiko wonder just how different she was from a real woman.  
"Something looks to be bothering you," Luna commented. She didn't bother to mention that she had an idea that it probably had something to do with Shinji. She had noticed how Emiko seemed to have gotten a bit upset when Priss mentioned Shinji had a girlfriend.  
Emiko opened her mouth to say something but chose to stay quiet. She should keep things to herself. There was no need to talk about and ask why she had even gotten upset at something like that. Unfortunately, the female inside of her made her want to tell all.  
She glance at Luna. Luna had that mature looked to her, an almost maternal look that seemed to make Emiko want to tell her. There were a few things that she believed was bothering her. It was probably a combination of her seemingly always being in a state of perpetual soreness and the knowledge that she actually has trouble beating Asuka in a sparring match. It probably made her more emotional. However, it still didn't explain exactly why should would get upset over anything dealing with Shinji.  
"Care to talk about it?" Luna asked.  
"No," she replied after a long pause.  
"It has to do with Shinji, doesn't it?" Luna pressed on.  
Emiko blushed, "W-what makes you think that?"  
Luna shrugged as if no longer interested, "Forget I ask,"  
She got up and headed out of the dojo.  
Emiko doesn't realize that the feelings she's feeling is because she has somehow developed feelings toward Shinji, Luna thought. She liked him and doesn't even realize it.  
Luna was about to enter the house when she happened to glance up and caught sight of Ranma as he was standing by the balcony.  
"Ranma," she called out toward him.  
"Oh, there you are," Ranma said with a smile, "I was looking for you before. Where were you?"  
"I was in the backyard and went in to the dojo for a bit," she replied, "Why were you looking for me?" "I was going to go jogging again," he said, "Y'wanna join me?"  
"Again?" she was surprised, "But we went jogging this morning,"  
"I know, but I figure I'd do it again," he said, "Y'interested?"  
Luna thought about it for a moment. Her legs were still sore. She was looking forward to taking the next day off to rest.  
"Um, I don't know..." she began.  
Ranma shrugged, "All right. Nevermind. I just wanted to ask,"  
"Have you asked Shinji?" she asked.  
Ranma chuckled. Little did Luna know was that knowledge of Shinji and how dedicated he was to his training actually made Ranma feel like he was being lazy. Ranma was in vastly better shape than Shinji but never pushed his body like Shinji had been since he started training.  
"I'll ask him to join me as soon as I find Ryoga so I can borrow that heavy backpack of his," Ranma commented.  
"Excuse me?" she asked, confused.  
"Nevermind," he waved a dismissive hand, "Are you sure you don't wanna come?"  
"Um," she began, wondering how should could kindly decline.  
"Nevermind, don't worry about it. You're probably tired from this morning anyway," he said, heading back in to the house.  
Inside the house, Ranma headed downstairs where he walked past Shinji as he was on his way up, intent on getting a change of clothes so he could take a shower.  
"I'll be back later, I'm gonna go jogging," Ranma told him.  
"Okay," Shinji said, "Wait. Jogging? But didn't you jog this morning?"  
Ranma smirked, "You're not the only one who can work out hard,"  
Ranma couldn't help but feel motivated to train harder. Shinji had pushed his body to the limit virtually every day. It made Ranma's morning jog seem like nothing, at least to a person of his well-being. If Shinji couldn't push his body to the limit, so could Ranma. Shinji's training made Ranma's own seem like a lazy-man's training. Much like Shinji, Ranma would push his body to the limit from now one.  
Unfortunately, it was easier said than done.  
Luna entered the kitchen shortly after having seen Ranma disappear from the house. There, Akane was sitting by the table reading a newspaper, not having read it this morning like she usually did.  
"Hey," Akane greeted her friend.  
"Hey," Luna had a smile on her face.  
Akane couldn't help but seem a bit curious as to why Luna was smiling like that.  
"What?" she asked.  
"Shinji's an exceptional young man," Luna commented.  
Akane nodded, "Of course. He's going to grow up to do great things,"  
"I was just making some observations and I noticed that he has both directly and indirectly caused up quite a stir around the house," Luna said, sitting down in a chair next to Akane.  
"How so?" Akane asked curiously, putting her newspaper down.  
"Ever since Shinji started training, Asuka has started training harder, jogging right after she gets home, so she doesn't lag very far behind," Luna said, "Because of the training, Asuka is becoming a better fighter. Emiko, seeing Asuka training and improving, is motivated to train as well to keep ahead of Asuka. Ranma seems to be training more and more now, most likely because he feels that Shinji trains much harder than him,"  
Akane's eyes widened in realization as Luna's words sunk in, "You know what, you're absolutely right. All of this started happening the very day after Shinji started doing some extra training over at Makunouchi Gym,"  
"I'm curious as to what kind of training Shinji does," Luna commented.  
"Me too," Akane said, now very interested, "For something to do training intense enough to actually motivate Ranma to training harder as well must be quite a feat,"  
"You want to go check where Shinji trains?" Luna asked.  
"You know what? That's a really good idea," Akane said, "Hey, since tomorrow's Sunday, everyone's off of work. We can all go and visit him. I know Linna would love to check it out since she's a boxing enthusiast. I'm sure all the others won't mind going as well,"  
Luna smiled, "So I guess that's the plan, to go to the Makunouchi Gym tomorrow,"  
"Right,"

Sumi and Meito arrived at the Mizunkan Stadium at eight in the evening, two hours before it was supposed to start. They waited on a giant line for an hour before they were being let in. When they gave their ticket to one of the dozen of staff people in charge of taking tickets by the entrance gates, the ticket person looked at the ticket.  
"Who gave you these tickets?" a young man asked. He noticed that the girl standing before him, Sumi, was rather cute and so was what looked to be her friend as she stood next to her.  
"A friend," Sumi said.  
The ticket person, recognizing that the two tickets handed to him did not look like the one he was supposed to be taking from regular ticket holders, made a call on the two-way radio that was on his belt initially.  
"Please, just step aside," the guy told them, "I just called my supervisor,"  
The to girls stepped aside while the guy resumed taking tickets from the ticket holders that had been waiting behind them.  
"Is something the matter?" Sumi asked, a bit concerned. It looked as if they had done something wrong.  
"Nothing," the man said. He didn't really know what to say. He had worked a ticket gates for Priss' concerts for a while but didn't recognize those tickets. He had a funny feeling they were some kind of cheap counterfeits and those girls and been ripped off. Poor girls.  
The guy's supervisor, a large burly man, approached the gate, "Something the matter?"  
The man handed the two tickets to the burly man, "Those two girls gave me these two tickets. I've never seen them before,"  
The burly man took a look at the tickets. After a moment, he recognized them, his eyes widening.  
He then turned the guy and said, "Idiot, these are Priss-sama's tickets. She carries with her personal tickets. These are hers. She must've gave them to them,"  
He couldn't help but be surprised to see them. Priss rarely ever gave out tickets.  
The man, having been briefed about Priss' personal tickets, turned toward the two girls, "Are one of you Sumi?"  
"Y-yes, I-I'm Sumi," Sumi replied nervously, wondering how the man knew her name.  
"The staff was told that if you showed up to bring you and your friend directly to Priss herself," the man said, remembering what he was told, "Can you please follow me?"  
The two girls were let through the gate where they followed the burly man.  
"Your friend, Shinji, called Priss earlier today," the burly man stated, recalling what he was supposed to relay, "He asked that you be taken care of and escorted to see Priss personally before the concert if you guys show up early,"  
"I don't get it," Sumi said, "S-Shinji did that?"  
"Since there are usually around a hundred or so lucky fans that have backstage passes, usually won on radio stations or such, your friend had called and asked to have you bypass them and be able to meet Priss before she is expected to meet all of those people with those backstage passes," the man said.  
"Really?" Sumi's eyes widened, "W-we can see her in private?"  
"Yes. In a sense, Shinji bumped you two up on priority compared to those with backstage passes,"  
Priss proceeded to get dressed.  
"Gee, I wonder when they'll be here," she asked herself, smirking. She had received a call from one of the staff that Shinji's classmate were in the stadium and were being escorted to her dressing room.  
Priss laughed, wondering how well her plan was going. She had received a call from Shinji on her cell phone not too long ago telling her that he would not be coming there and had given them to Sumi where she would come with her housemate. That was it. However, wanting to play matchmaker, she wanted to make it seem like this was all possible because of Shinji. Therefore, he would seem like quite a guy in Sumi's eyes.  
There was a knock on the door.  
"C'mon," she said.  
A burly man's head peeked in, "S-sorry to bother you, Priss-sama, but Sumi and her friend are here,"  
"Sure, have 'em come in," Priss smirked.  
Two girls nervously entered the room. They quietly stood right by the door.  
Priss smiled, recognizing Sumi from yesterday. "Please, have a seat," Priss said in a soft voice, knowing that both girls were very very nervous. She gestured toward the couch right by the door, the same couch where she had been known to sleep for an hour or so before a concert whenever she was playing at this stadium.  
Sumi and Meito did as they were told.  
"Shinji called me on my cell phone earlier," Priss said, forcing herself to keep a straight face as to not give herself away, "He asked that I give you special treatment,"  
"H-he did?" Sumi asked in shock. It was so shocking how Priss spoke of Shinji like they had known each other for so long. Priss was a superstar and it was shocking how someone like Shinji could know her.  
"Yeah, isn't he a nice guy for doing that?" Priss smiled.  
Sumi and Shinji look good together, Priss thought. I really like Shinji and want to see him happy. Sumi is the kinda girl that should being his life. I've only recently met her, but will definitely go well together.  
"That was really nice of him," Sumi said.  
"And of course, Shinji asked that you be able to watch from the gap between the crowd and stage. That way, you two won't be at risk of being nearly crushed since it gets very tightly-packed by the front," Priss smirked.  
"R-r-really? T-he gap between the stage and crowd? That's closer than front row," Sumi gasped.  
"W-what about the security guards?" Meito asked. She remembered seeing on television that when some people crowd surfed and made it to the gap between the front gate separating the crowd from the stage, the several of few dozen security guards usually converged on the individual to escort them away.  
"Don't worry, the security guards that hang there won't touch you, you have my word," Priss said.  
"Wow, t-thanks," Sumi and Meito said, so happy that everything seemed almost surreal.  
"Thank Shinji," Priss grinned, "How did you guys get here?"  
"We took the taxi," Meito answered.  
"Come back to my dressing room after the concert," Priss smirked, "Shinji also asked that you two be escorted home via limo. I'll come with you,"  
"R-r-really?"  
Sunday came around. Shinji and Emiko were both at the gym, doing their jump-rope. Oddly enough, Shinji had started talking while doing the exercise, no longer needing to have to concentrate fully on the exercise. He could actually indulge in very light conversation, most of his answer taking a bit longer than usual to answer.  
It was shortly after three.  
"Um, so, who called you?" Emiko finally had the courage to ask. She had been meaning to ask him that ever since yesterday when she had picked up the phone and heard Sumi on the other line.  
"Sumi," he said after a moment. His attention was straight ahead. He didn't have the ability to actually look around while talking. However, being able to talk was a lot better than not. It got boring doing jump-rope for an hour without being able to talk to make the time seem to pass faster.  
Emiko, having realized that the pausing between answers wasn't because of his hesitation to answer, pressed on.  
"So, um, why did she call you?" she asked. She wondered if she was being nosy. It really was none of her business anyway. However, curiosity was definitely getting the better of her and she didn't know why.  
"To ask me to go with her to Priss' concert," Shinji managed to answer in one breath after a moment.  
Emiko was silent.  
"Priss gave me two tickets to go to her concerts tonight," he continued on after a minute, "I gave 'em to her. She called to ask me if I wanted to go with her,"  
Emiko softly asked, "A-and did you say yes?"  
"No," he replied, still looking ahead, unable to see the smile that crossed Emiko's face when he said that, "Kinda weird if you think about it. I gave those tickets away because I didn't want them. Sumi called to see if I wanted to use one of them to go with her while she used the other,"  
"Um, h-how come you didn't go?"  
"I don't care much for concerts," Shinji said, "They're not my thing. Besides, this is Priss we're talking about. I can't pictures myself like those fans that go to watch her. I don't see her like that," Shinji ended up tripping over his own feet, the second part of his replay too much to handle while simultaneously doing the exercise. He tumbled to the floor, the rope bounding his ankles.  
"God, it's been only ten minutes and I already trip," Shinji muttered, trying to free his feet, "I feel like I'm starting all over again,"  
Emiko giggled. Shinji turned his attention toward her. She has a nice laugh, Shinji thought. "I guess talkige and jump-rope is still beyond my grasp," Shinji said, giving a meek laugh.  
Once untangled, he got back to his feet and proceeded to do jump-rope again. As he did, he allowed his mind to wander for a bit, leading him to wonder if he had given up an opportunity to getting to know Sumi better, to see what kind of person she was like outside of classes. He only spent a short time with her when he bumped in to her at the movie theatre and he had to admit that she was rather nice company.  
"But that concert atmosphere is not something I fit in to," Shinji commented aloud.  
"What was that?" Emiko asked, looking toward him.  
Shinji gave a meek smile and said, "Nevermind,"  
"Um, okay," she went back to her own exercise.  
They did jump-rope in silence for five minutes before they caught sight of the front door opening and in entering several familiar faces.  
Shinji's jaw dropped as he saw an entire crew mob of people, all of them him able to recognize. Akane and everyone else entered the gym. The only people that weren't with them were Madigan, Carper, and Jun, having gone on a long family vacation up in Hokkaido. Ranma wasn't with them either. All in all, it looked like a huge mob of females had somehow gotten lost and ended up at the gym.  
"Wow, so this is what the inside looks like," Linna said, "I pass by this place on my way to work by never actually seen the inside before," She glanced toward the right where she saw the punching bags, "Wow, they have water-filled punching bags. They're much better than sandbags,"  
"How come?" Nene asked.  
"Unlike sand-filled ones, water-filled one are easy on your hands and feet," Akane answered first, "You can actually punch those kind of bags without needing to wear gloves,"  
"What's with that?" Lina asked, gesturing toward the ring in the middle gym. It looked like some kind of barred-off combat area. Inside the ring, she noticed two people punching the heck out of each other, "It looks barbaric,"  
Akane smirked, "Boxing's more refined than that. I guess they're inexperienced fighters,"  
"Heh, here comes the mob of guys," Misato commented. She and everyone else knew that whenever they all went out, mobs of guys were sure to approach. Since it was a large group of beautiful girls, guys knew they had a large choice.  
"I wish Shinji or Ranma were with us," Linna commented. She, like the others, knew that having just one guy in their group tended to keep all the guys at bay. Guys tended to think that Ranma or Shinji was one lucky guy to have so many girls around him and would simply leave them be, not wanting to move in on another man's territory.  
"H-hi there ladies," a young man said, giving them his most charming smile.  
"Hi," several guys said in unison.  
Before long, there were a two to one ratio between guys and girls by the front entrance.  
"Heh, we've still got it," Misato nudged at Linna.  
Linna winked.  
"Oh my God, it's Priss!" one of the guys said, noticing her among the crowd.  
Misato sighed. Priss got all the attention because she was easily the most famous of the group.  
"Um, hi," Priss gave them a slight smile, not all that happy to receive extra attention. She just wanted to be able to walk down the street without someone recognizing her and becoming all excited from being able to come in contact with someone like her. That was why she liked her group of friends, because they see her as a regular woman, not some superstar.  
"Can I have your autograph?" one asked.  
Pretty soon, everyone started crowding around her.  
Priss sighed. That was the world she had gotten herself in to because of her singing and that was the world she had to get used to so long as she continued to sing. "Is Shinji here," Akane spoke for the entire group of females behind her, "Is he around?"  
"I see him," Rei said, pointing toward the back left of the gym.  
"Shinji!" Misato waved. She spotted Emiko next to him, "Hey, why's Emiko here?"  
"Stupid, she trains with him," Linna said, "Don't you pay attention at the dinner table yesterday?"  
"Only if Ranma's speaking," Misato smirked.  
"Jeez," several girls muttered.  
Shinji, noticing the group and the sudden change of atmosphere in the gym, decided it was best to stop what he was doing and find out what was going on. He turned toward Emiko, "Wanna stop?"  
"Okay," she said.  
The two of them walked over toward the group, blocked off from actually reaching them because of the group of guys separating them.  
A loud whistle blew which caused the entire gym to become deathly silent, everyone turning their attention toward the back where they saw Ippo, an annoyed look on his face.  
"What's going on here?" he asked, looking about. He noticed not a single person was training.  
"It's Priss!" a guy shouted in reply, "She's here, in this gym!"  
The gym burst out in a chaos again causing Ippo to have to blow his whistle again to get everyone's attention. When he did, he glanced toward the group of girls and caught sight of Priss. He, like everyone in all of Japan, recognized her. However, he hid his yearning to approach her to get her autograph. Ippo noticed that rather annoyed look on Priss' face and realized that she didn't want to be dealing with so many people trying to get her autograph.  
"Everyone, get back to your training," Ippo shouted toward the guys, "You guys are obviously bothering her,"  
Ippo was a bit surprised he was able to do that. He was never the stern-type. He was much now like he used to be when he was young, somewhat passive. However, he could be stern when he really needed to be.  
"Yeah, she might not come back and visit if you make bothersome to visit," Misato commented for an added effect.  
All the guys quickly went about training again. Two people didn't go back to training, Shinji and Emiko.  
Ippo approached the group, very curious as to why such a large group of females were there to begin with. Very few females ever came to this gym. "Hi, I'm Ippo, the owner of this gym," he introduced himself. When he spotted Akane among the group, his face showed surprise, "Akane, I didn't see you there. What brings you here?"  
Akane smiled, "It's nice seeing you again,"  
"It's been awhile," Ippo said, "You should come visit more often,"  
"I know," Akane gave a meek smile.  
"So, what bring you, um, and I guess your friends here?" he asked.  
He glanced over the group and saw Misato, Ritsuko, Rei, Asuka, Luna, Lina, Akane, Priss, Sylia, Linna, and Nene. That was one large group of beautiful girls. Standing among that group was Shinji and Emiko. Oddly enough, it looked like Shinji was the only one standing among a group of twelve girls.  
"We were just in the neighborhood," Akane gave a little white lie, "And just wanted to stop by and see how Shinji's and Emiko's training was going,"  
Akane believed Ippo didn't need to know that they were originally here to observe just want kind of training Shinji did that was motivating Ranma to train harder. "Why don't you ask him?" Ippo smirked.  
"We do about an hour of jump-rope, then do some roadwork," Shinji said, "That usually takes around and hour or a little bit longer. When we get back, I do my own training while Emiko does her own,"  
"You guys do different exercises after jogging?" Nene asked, "I figure you'd be doing the same,"  
"No," Shinji shook his head, "Hers is low impact. Mine is high impact,"  
"High impact, sounds manly," Misato smirked.  
Shinji blushed. He cleared his throat, "Emiko does lunges, dumbbell curls, squats, and standing twists,"  
"What about you?" Luna asked, curious.  
"Clean and jerks and the power snatch," he replied.  
"ooh, sounds sexual," Misato began to say with a smirk.  
"Misato!" everyone said in unison.  
Shinji felt extremely self-conscious as he went about finishing his jump-rope. The entire group was sitting by the bench lining the front left portion of the gym, allowing them a clear view of Shinji and Emiko as they did their warm-ups. They were keeping themselves busy, indulging in conversation as he did so. Priss, having actually spent ten minutes signing autographs for all the gym patrons as well as Ippo, were also with the group, glad to be left alone to enjoy being in the company of friends.  
"I still dunno why they're here," Shinji commented.  
"They were just in the neighborhood," Emiko replied, "That's what Akane said,"  
"So why are they still here?" he asked, "They came by, said hi, so now they're free to leave,"  
"They want to walk with us back home," Emiko said, repeating what Akane had said.  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess. But still, it seems odd,"  
Finished with his jump-rope, he waited for Emiko to stop as well to take her jump-rope so he could hang both his and her jump-rope on the hooks on the wall nearby.  
"Ugh, now I've gotta jog," Shinji said sullenly, sighing.  
"You'll do fine," she said in a reassuring voice, even smiling.  
"I dunno," he said, "I've yet to be able to finish it without having to stop,"  
Emiko smiled, "Even though you have to stop, you manage to finish in around nine minutes. That's a full minute faster than when you first started,"  
"Really?"  
Emiko nodded.  
"How do you know?" Shinji asked, "Have you been keeping track of how fast I run?"  
Emiko couldn't help but give a very slight blush, unnoticed by Shinji.  
"Um, well, since I'm jogging along with you, it's only natural," she quickly answered.  
"You've got a point," he said.  
The two of them walked over to where the group was.  
"You guys going to go jogging?" Ritsuko asked, remembering Shinji mentioning that they do that after jump-rope.  
Shinji nodded "Yeah, we jog around the block once. It's a mile around,"  
"Okay," Misato said, "We'll be right here when you get back,"  
She did not want to accompany Shinji and Emiko on their jog. She preferred to avoid jogging if possible.  
Shinji smirked, "All right. We'll be back shortly,"  
He headed for the door, Emiko following suit.

Ranma stopped in front of Makunouchi Gym in the middle of his mid-day jog, having decided he wanted to stop by and pay Shinji and Emiko a visit. "It's only around four," he told himself, looking at his watch, "I saw Shinji and Emiko heading out at around three so they should be halfway through their training session by now,"  
Ranma opened the door and entered. Inside, he was surprised to see everyone gathered about by benches lining the front left of the gym.  
"What the heck are you guys doing here?" he asked, approaching them. He didn't know if he should feel happy or suspicious at the sight of seeing them there. At the moment, he was feeling suspicious.  
"What are you doing here?" Akane asked, smiling innocently.  
"I was just stopping by," Ranma answered.  
"That's the same with us," she replied.  
"All of you guys decided on it together?" Ranma narrowed his eyes, "Dontcha girl going shopping or something? Y'know, do girlie stuff,"  
Priss narrowed her eyes at Ranma, "What, you think all we ever do is shop when we're all together?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yep,"  
"That's a rather sexist assumption, Ranma," Sylia said.  
"And?" he seemed confused.  
"Nevermind," Sylia sighed.  
"We were just in the neighborhood," Akane said, "And much like you we figured we'd stop by,"  
Ranma looked around, "Where's Shinji and Emiko? Are they training downstairs?"  
"There's a downstairs to this gym?" Linna asked. She knew quite a bit a bout boxing but didn't know that there was a basement to gyms. The gym were she worked out didn't have a basement.  
Ranma gestured toward the door located right by the locker room, "That's the door to the basement. It's a whole 'nother section of this gym. The basement section is about twice the size of this area,"  
"Really?" everyone was surprised.  
"Yeah, I remember seeing down there when I first visited this place a while back," came the reply, "It's got four boxing rings if I recall correctly. It also has a the storage room for a lot of miscellaneous training equipment like medicine balls, extra boxing gloves, hit mitts, and a whole buncha other stuff,"  
"Wow, I never knew there was a lower section," Linna said, "Can we go check it out?"  
"What the heck are you asking me? Go ask Ippo. It's his gym," Ranma smirked, "I'm visiting here much like you and everyone else. Anyway, are Shinji and Emiko downstairs?"  
"No," Akane answered, "They just went out to do some jogging,"  
"Cool," he said, "I guess I'll just wait until he gets back. Shouldn't be long,"  
"Hey, why don't you spar against Ippo?" one of the girls suggested.

Shinji stopped in front of the gym, needing to rest, his hands on his knees as he looked toward the ground.  
"You did it," Emiko couldn't help but smile.  
"Huh? Did what?" he asked, looking toward her.  
"You managed to jog around the block without having to stop," she said, actually feeling proud toward him. It was amazing as she noticed how Shinji was growing right before her very eyes. With every passing day, he was becoming better and better. Sure, it took nine minutes to run a mile which is slow by even normal standards, but the fact that he was able to finish when he couldn't before meant quite a bit.  
Shinji's eyes widened, "You're right. I did it!"  
He gave Emiko a quick hug, caught up in himself, actually swinging her around once. When he realized what he had done, he quickly placed her down on her feet, a big blush on his face. "I-I-I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean it," Shinji looked toward the ground.  
Emiko was also blushing, "I-it's okay. N-no harm done,"  
No one had ever actually grabbed her like that and had gotten away unscathed. The only person to have ever done that to her was Ranma, when he had been carrying her and Lina under each arm, intent on throwing the two of them in to a river a while back on their world.  
She wondered what the heck was wrong with her. Even though she was standing next to him, she was still skilled enough to be able to react and dodge Shinji's attempted embrace. She knew she hadn't purposely allowed herself to be grabbed like that, not that she minded. "C'mon, let's head in," Shinji said, wanting to change the subject, hoping Emiko wasn't upset at him.  
"O-okay," she said softly.  
Shinji opened the door for Emiko as the two of they entered. Upon entering, they noticed that the entire gym was in an uproar much like the other day when Ippo was in the ring, everyone gathered around the gym. Shinji glanced toward the ring. His jaw dropped when he caught sight, of two familiar figures in the ring.  
"Oh my god! Ranma and Ippo are sparring each other!" Shinji shouted.  
"T-they are?" Emiko said, trying to look over the crowd.  
Shinji quickly ran over to where he got the folding chair last time and brought it over and opened it by Emiko. Emiko thanked Shinji and got up on top of it. Once on top, she was able to get a clear view of the action. Misato and the others were lined along the ring, closest to the fight, the gym patrons gathered around the ring behind then.  
Ranma and Ippo were in the middle of the ring, neither of them wearing head gear. Ranma looked rather odd for he was wearing boxing gloves. Although neither them had attacked each other, Ranma definitely looked out of his element.  
Already on the second round, neither fighter seem tired.  
All the guys in the gym were rooting for their friend and trainer, Ippo, while all the girls were rooting for Ranma.  
"Don't hold back," Ippo said.  
"Too late," Ranma smirked, "The fact that I can't kick, grapple, or attack any area below the legs means I'm gonna hafta hold back,"  
Ippo chuckled, "I guess you have a point,"  
Ippo and Ranma circled one another, assessing each other. Ippo was in the stance that had been called the 'Ippo Peek-a-boo', a slightly modified version of a 'Peek-a-boo' stance adopted by a different boxer back in the day. "Oh my god, Ippo's opponent is in a Hitman Stance," a patron shouted.  
"No, it looks different," someone commented.  
"Does he know the Flicker Jab?" someone asked to no one in particular.  
Ranma's stance looked very unorthodox, his entire left side pointing toward Ippo, left arm hanging low by his waist, swaying back and forth slightly, chin tucked behind the shoulder.  
Ranma's defensive stance is amazing, Ippo thought. Not only does it keep his upper body well-guarded, the way his legs are spread like that helps him react against low attacks, perhaps sweeps or something like that. It looks like a modified version the Hitman Stance, geared toward defense. Ranma inched forward, wondering how Ippo would react.  
Ippo inched forward as well.  
He's an close-ranged fighter, Ranma ascertained just by the single step he saw Ippo make. His punch must be very powerful, perhaps powerful enough to knock a guy out on a single hit. However, it's easier said than done.  
Ippo dashed forward, covering the distance between them in a split second. "Oh man, Ippo's dash is as fast as Ranma's," Shinji commented, recalling the speed of Ranma's dash when he dashed toward Tou after Tou had made that threatening remark.  
"Fast," was all Ranma could comment, very surprised. Ranma saw Ippo execute a quick jab toward him. Since Ippo's dash-in had actually caught Ranma by surprise, Ranma chose to bring both forearms up to guard his face. He was surprised a second time when the force of the jab was actually powerful enough to cause his forearms to move back slightly.  
Before Ranma was able to do anyway, Ippo hit his guard with two jabs followed by a straight punch.  
Ranma allowed his guard to block both jabs and the straight punch follow-up. He was surprised once again when he found himself staggering slightly, slightly off balance from being pushed back by the force of that last punch. However, his guard remained.  
Oh man, Ranma just blocked my Guardcrush punch, Ippo though. The only person that was able to block that was Boon.  
"Ow," Ranma muttered, dropping his guard to look at his forearms. If he were a normal human, his forearm would most likely be black and blue.  
Ranma grinned, a feeling of excitement flowing through his veins. Ippo had managed to surprise him not once, but twice. Only his fights against Ryoga ever kept him on his toes.  
"This is great!" Ranma said, smiling happily. He smirked toward Ippo whom had take a quick step back, trying to regain his composure after the shock of seeing his Guardcrush actually being ineffective.  
"My turn," Ranma grinned, narrowing his eyes toward Ippo.  
Ippo readied himself to dodge whatever attack Ranma attempted.  
Ranma dashed forward at a speed that double Ippo's own. He cocked and arm back and put enough force behind his punch to knock Ippo out. Ippo was good, Ranma had to give him that, but he was still human and only fought human opponents. Ranma's fighting experience far exceeded Ippo's.  
Ranma's eyes widened when he actually found his punch hitting the air where Ippo used to be, Ippo having ducked under the attack.  
"Wow," Ranma had to admire. He had just seen Ippo's body react to an attack even before the brain registered that there was an attack to begin with. Ippo's reflexes were that of Ranma's own, dealing on actual instinctive reflexes instead of actually voluntarily reacting to an attack.  
Ranma didn't bother to dodge or block, his arm remaining in the extended position.  
I'll let him hit me, he earned it, Ranma thought. Boy is he in for a surprise.  
Ippo punched Ranma right in the ribs with a devastatingly powerful uppercut. The punch had so much power behind it that it actually caused both of Ranma's legs to become lifted off the ring floor. Ranma ended up landed back on his feet a foot away from where he was stuck.  
Ranma smirked, "That tickles,"  
"What the?" Ippo was very shocked.  
"Gonna hafta hit me harder than that," Ranma grinned. His AT field made him basically impervious to traditional and conventional attacks. There was nothing he could really do about it. He was an Angel, afterall. Luckily, because he was wearing a red shirt, the very faint glow of the red AT field made it undetectable to anyone watching the fight and perhaps even Ippo.  
Ippo composed himself, getting back in to a defensive stance again.  
"Hit him harder!" one of the patrons shouted.  
"Looks like I'll hafta," Ippo replied, not turning his attention away from Ranma.  
"Whoa, that wasn't your strongest punch?" Ranma asked,  
Ippo shook his head, "Of course not,"  
"Damn," Ranma smirked, his admiration toward Ippo very evident.  
Ippo dashed forward, seizing Ranma's distraction. He gave a series of very high speed jabs and straights toward Ranma.  
Ranma, already familiar with Ippo's jabs and straights, dodged every punch while standing in place, his movements minimal. However, when Ippo executed a hook punch, its speed and angle of attack caught him off-guard, leading him to have to block it. Ranma hopped slightly on one foot to regain his balance, surprise at the power behind such a punch. It had caused him to stagger slightly. Of course, Ranma didn't need to stagger if he called forth his AT field but then he'd have to explain what it was to everyone that witnessed it.  
"Nice block," Ippo commented.  
"Nice punch," Ranma said in reply, still smiling.  
Ranma dashed forward and did a quick jab toward Ippo's face. However, to everyone surrounding the gym except for Emiko and Akane, it looked like Ranma didn't attack, his jab faster than the eye could see. A loud snap could be heard as Ranma's jab shot right past Ippo's guard before he could get it up and struck him in the face. Everyone watching didn't know what happen as they saw Ranma dash forward, stopping right in front of Ippo one second and Ippo reeling backwards as if having been struck when everyone knew they didn't see a punch connect.  
He should be able to withstand a simple jab from me, Ranma thought. Ippo grimaced as he took two steps back, feeling a bitind oriented. He didn't even see himself getting hit but he knew he had somehow gotten hit. The pain was intense and made him see white spots for a moment.  
He's got a very good pain-threshold, Ranma thought. He was surprised Ippo was able to remain standing despite the lack of having ki protecting him. Ippo had taken the blow full-force without the protection of ki absorbing most of the impact. Ranma remained where he was for a moment as he watched Ippo recover from the punch.  
"What the heck was that?" Ippo said, feeling that he needed to be more cautious.  
"A regular jab," Ranma grinned.  
"Your speed caught me by surprise," Ippo commented, smirking, feeling very excited about fighting, "However, I won't let you land that again,"  
If there were opponents like Ranma in the boxing working, the thought of coming out of retirement would actually cross Ippo's mind. He would definitely come out of retirement to fight someone along the same lines of Ranma's caliber. The last time he fought such a skilled opponent was Boon which had been a long long time ago. Everyone else before him didn't really count because he hadn't actually been at his peak during then. Ranma was the first post-Boon fight fighter that was obviously giving Ippo trouble.  
Ranma resumed that modified Hitman Stance, the stance making Ippo feeling slightly on edge.  
"Heh, you don't like fighting against this stance," Ranma smirked, noticing simply from the way Ippo tightened up the constant guard he kept in front of him.  
"I'm not used to it," Ippo commented, "But I've got ways around it,"  
Ranma executed a quick left jab. To his surprise, Ippo dodged it. To make sure it wasn't a fluke, Ranma executed three more jabs, those dodged as well.  
"Oh my god! Ippo's opponent knows the Flicker Jab!" someone shouted.  
The gym burst out in cheers as Ippo dodge.  
Flicker Jab, huh, Ranma thought. I guess that's what the boxing world call such a jab from the stance I'm in. However, I must say, Ippo managed to dodge them. Considering my left hand was by my waist as I do the jab, the motion of my fist should be hard to follow and dodge. It's obvious he knows how to dodge this kind of attack.  
Ippo dashed in as Ranma was retracting from his missed jab. Putting his body on the line and gambling that Ranma would execute another jab to ward him off, Ippo weaved toward the side, angling his entire right side toward Ranma, the line between his feet directly perpendicular to Ranma, bending his back while extending his right arm out and upward right toward Ranma's face just as the anticipated jab sailed right over Ippo's face. The punch looked like a straight punch from and uppercut position. Ippo's gamble was right on the money as his fist struck Ranma right in his face.  
"Oh my god, the Ippo Upper!" someone shouted.  
The men in the crowd cheered as all the girls winced at the how devastating the punch looked.  
When Ippo retracted his hand, his eyes widened as he saw Ranma's grinning face.  
"Gotcha!" Ranma laughed.  
Ranma cocked his right arm back and brought it forward and downward in an overhead punch, intent punching Ippo right in his surprised face with a wickedly powerful hook punch.  
A bell sounded, signaling the end of the three-minute round.  
Ranma stopped his punch, his fist inches from Ippo's face.  
Everyone gasped at just how close Ippo came to having received a devastating blow had it not been for the bell. Everyone climbed in to the ring to congratulate an awesome fight. Even though the sparring session lasted only one round, it was probably the most intense session ever.  
Before long, everyone dispersed to continue with their training, leaving Ranma and Ippo alone in the ring. The girls had also walked off to talk to Shinji and Emiko, having spotted them when everyone had dispersed.  
"Good fight," Ranma commented, taking off the gloves, "Looks like you have me beat,"  
"What are you talking about?" Ippo said, giving a meek laugh, "If it weren't for the bell, I would've been done for. The bell basically saved my life,"  
Ranma shrugged, "The fight was only last one round. However, you hit me twice to my one,"  
"So you did hit me back there," Ippo said, "I was wondering what that was. I didn't even see the punch. All I did was see you dashing toward me and then suddenly having my head snap back and feeling like I had been punched,"  
Ranma chuckled, "You took the jab well,"  
"T-that was your jab? Jeez, I'd hate to wonder what your stronger punches would feel like," Ippo gave a meek smile.  
"Let's just say that they are a bit on the painful side," Ranma grinned.  
"I may had hit you more, but I know I would have been on the losing end if we continued on," Ippo said, "I'm glad we actually fought. I definitely admit to you being the better fighter,"  
Ranma gave a smile, "Thanks. I'm kinda feel glad I didn't beat you. It'd probably look really bad had you lost while all those people here were watching you. They all look up to you and it would be a shame if they saw you get beaten by me, basically a stranger to this gym,"  
Ippo shrugged, "I guess,"  
"I'm kinda glad we fought," Ranma commented, "You're the most skilled human I ever fought," Ranma had no idea if Ryoga was still human and believed he wasn't. "Huh?"  
"Um, nevermind," Ranma gave a meek laugh, "Let's just say I've fought some really good opponents in my life and you're definitely up there among the best,"  
"Thanks,"  
"That fight was awesome," Shinji commented, approaching the two of them.  
"Thanks," Ranma and Ippo replied, both smiling.  
"How come you guys only fought one round?" he asked, "I would've loved to seen how the outcome would've been,"  
"The plan was only to fight for one round," Ranma said, "I didn't even want to fight. However, the girls were egging me to have a fight and I caved. I was more intent on just finding out at just how awesome a fighter Ippo was than actually beating him. I knew he was good but I never anticipated that he would be this good,"  
"T-thanks," Ippo said, a bit embarrassed. It definitely felt good to be praised so sincerely.  
Ranma laughed, "Man, Shinji, I can't wait to fight you when start learning how to fight from him,"  
Ranma was definitely eager to have an all-out fight against Shinji. It would probably be years before that would ever happen, but Ranma was patient so he wouldn't mind the wait. If Shinji became as good as Ippo and continued on learning how to become efficient in allowing his own ki to abate most of the impacts of attack, he would be definitely a force to be reckoned with. Heck, even at this point in his development, Shinji was a force to be reckoned with. No normal fighter would be able to beat him easily.  
Shinji gulped. As much as he enjoyed fighting Ranma, he knew Ranma held back immensely. He didn't like the thought of what Ranma was capable of since he had seen Ranma fight Ryoga and those battles were beyond comprehension. The thought of being hit as hard as Ranma hit Ryoga was something he was definitely not looking forward to.  
"Shinji, why don't you and Emiko go on and do your weight exercises?" Ippo said, leaning by the ropes, forearms draped over them.  
"Okay," Shinji said.  
"So, when do you plan on training Shinji to actually fight?" Ranma asked. He and Ippo climbed out of the ring and leaned against it, their gaze toward Shinji as he prepared to do the clean and jerk.  
"In about a month, but considering how fast he's progressing, I think I'll be showing him in about two weeks," Ippo said.  
Ranma whistled, seeing Shinji perform the clean and jerk. A quick inspection and noticing that the barbell he was lifting had two ten pound plates and one five pound plate on either side indicated that Shinji was doing ninety pounds, "Man, he's already doing those exercises? He's really coming along fine,"  
"Yeah," Ippo answered, "His progress is amazing. Whatever training routine or diet you have him on before and after training here is doing wonders for him,"  
Ranma chuckled, "The only training he does after here is sparring against me back home,"  
"Really? You two spar against one another? How well does he do against you?" Ippo asked in succession.  
Ranma shrugged, "Yeah, we spar. He's much better than what he used to be. He's skilled enough to actually take down multiple opponents much bigger and stronger than him,"  
"Strange," Ippo commented.  
"Oh?" "It just seems strange how he is able to," Ippo said, "Shinji's dedication and discipline is unrivalled. He reminds me of how hard I used to train when I first started boxing. However, I worry about him as a fighter,"  
"What do you mean?" Ranma turned his attention toward him.  
"I've seen Shinji hitting the punching bag," Ippo hated to state, feeling like he was doing something bad talking behind Shinji's back, "Shinji neither has a strong nor fast punch,"  
Ranma smirked, "You think so?"  
"From what I've seen seeing him hitting the punching bag, that's the conclusion I have come to," Ippo said, "There are several things I find rather odd. His punch is weak and slow, definitely easily avoidable. And even if it did connect, it wouldn't be all that effective not unless it hits the right spot like the solar plexus. However, what I can't figure out is that I sense this massive sense of potential from him. It doesn't make sense,"  
Ranma laughed, "I know whatcha mean. I sense it too,"  
"I know it's really none of my business but what kinda childhood did he used to have?" Ippo asked, "Perhaps that could explain it. Did he used to get beat up a lot? His personality indicates that he doesn't start fights but his passiveness suggests that he does get picked on,"  
"I don't know much about his entire childhood but I do know what he used to be before he became the young man he is now," Ranma commented.  
"Like what?"  
Ranma wondered what to say. Shinji used to be an EVA pilot. He had killed his father to save his friend, Rei and was perhaps the reason why Ritsuko was still alive when Ranma had found her. Shinji had saved three worlds to date, his own, this world, and an alternate world where the God-version of Ranma roamed. He had died trying to save that Ranma and was given life again. "Shinji basically had your average run-of-the-mill childhood," Ranma gave a smile.  
Ippo took it at face value. There was no reason to not believe Ranma. If he lied, then there was a good reason. Ranma seemed like the type that rarely lied and only did so for a very good reason unknown to anyone but himself.  
"What do you think, do you think Shinji'll be ready for the pro test?" Ippo asked, wanting Ranma's opinion.  
Ranma shrugged, "He's ready for it now. He just don't know it,"  
"I dunno about that," Ippo disagreed, "Shinji's still go a long way to go. From what I see, it looks like his mind is quick but his body is slow to follow. Sometimes, when I used to see tripping over the jump-rope, I could tell actually realizes instantaneously that he's going to fall but his body seemed to be unable to move quick enough to stop him from falling,"  
"Seems so," Ranma shrugged, "He does seem clumsy at times,"  
"He's much less clumsy now though," Ippo added.  
"I like the kinda training you're giving him," Ranma commented, changing the subject, "You seem to be focusing on giving him power. It'll help him not only punch hard but also take more blows. The jump-rope is a good warm-up exercise for someone of Shinji's, um, coordination. Dunno about Emiko though. She's too skilled for something like that,"  
"I thought the same thing," Ippo said, "I talked to her the other day and mentioned to her that I'll show her another warm-up exercise she could do shortly after she and Shinji came in and Shinji had gone to the locker room to get changed. I asked her if she was interested in doing something different than jump-rope, that being some lunges. However, she said that she wanted to stick with jump-rope so left it as that and tacked on the lunges in to the second section of the training session,"  
Ranma smirked, "Really?"  
"Yeah," Ippo nodded, "It's a bit strange since she obviously wants to train very hard but she seems to actually hold back on some of the stuff she should be doing because she's basically following Shinji's pace. She's much more advanced than that. For instance, she jogs with Shinji around the block. She should be jogging around ten times around the block to Shinji's every one,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Strange girl,"  
Ippo shrugged, "I wouldn't say it as that. However, since she seemed to be enjoying herself, who am I to complain. Afterall, the easiest way of losing interest in training is if you don't enjoy yourself,"  
"True," Ranma agreed.  
"Hey, on a different note, I'm just curious," Ippo smiled, "How do you and all those girls seem to know each other? Rumors are going to spread once after Shinji leaves this gym because they had asked specifically for Shinji when they all came in,"  
"We all know each other because we're all friends,"

"C'mon, let's all go somewhere," Misato suggested as they all emerged from Makunouchi Gym.  
"What're you talking about?" Ranma said, "I was in the middle of jogging when I stopped by at the gym. I'm gonna resume jogging after that hour rest I basically had stopping in there,"  
Luna smirked, "Hm, I wonder why you're jogging more often. What seems to be motivating you to go jogging more?"  
Akane giggled inwardly.  
Ranma blushed, "T-t-there's no reason,"  
"C'mon, how often are we ever together like this?" Misato said.  
"Whatcha talking about? We were all together two days ago on Friday," Ranma smirked, glad for the change in subject.  
"Shinji, I really admire your dedication to your training," Sylia commented, "I was very amazed at how you were able to push your body so far beyond the limit doing those, what were they called, oh yeah, power snatches, up to the point of failure every time. Most people would have stopped well before that,"  
Shinji blushed, "T-t-thank you. I try,"

Monday rolled around.  
Shinji headed toward his first class, ten minutes left before it started. His body was breaking and sore beyond belief. He couldn't believe how sore he was.  
He knew why though. It was because he was in the presence of all those girls the other day and had subconsciously pushed himself harder than he usually did in a effort to show off.  
"They're my friends, why the heck would try and show off in front of them," he muttered to himself "What was that?" came a voice.  
Shinji nearly jumped out of his skin as he quickly turned around. Unfortunately for him, because of centripetal force and the fact that his backpack was partially open, his books ended up going flying, landing on the floor scattered about.  
"Damn," Shinji muttered, turning his attention toward picking up the books.  
"S-sorry," Sumi said, quickly crouching by and helping him retrieve his books.  
Unfortunately, they ended up accidentally bopping each other in the head when they grabbed for the same book. "Ow," Sumi said, falling backwards and on to her backside.  
"S-sorry," Shinji said, blushing slightly.  
Both of their gaze met as they looked at each other.  
After a moment, Shinji snickered.  
Sumi giggled slightly.  
After a moment, both of them started laughing.  
Shinji grabbed the book and got to his feet. He extended his hand and helped Sumi to her feet.  
"Thank you," she said.  
"So, how was the concert?" Shinji asked, figuring that since there were ten minutes left before class started, they could have a quick chat in the meanwhile.  
Sumi's eyes widened as she suddenly remembered how great a time. When she remembered how great a time she had last night, she ended up jumping forward and hugging Shinji.  
"Shinji, you're the greatest! I had the absolute greatest time!" she said happily, "I nor my housemate'll ever forget that night,"  
Shinji, blushing, replied, "I-I'm glad y-you liked it,"  
Sumi pulled as, totally unaware that her hug and made Shinji feel suddenly very nervous, "It was the greatest. I'm so glad you called Priss' cell phone,"  
Shinji shrugged, "It was no problem,"  
"It was so cool," she said, "When we showed up, we were taken to Priss' changing room where we were able to have a one-on-one talk with her,"  
"Yeah, Priss said they were backstage tickets," Shinji commented.  
Sumi said, "When the concert started, we were able to watch from the gap between the crowd and the stage,"  
"Isn't that considered really close?" he asked. He wasn't too sure.  
"Are you kidding me? It's closer to the stage that the front row is," Sumi said, "It's as close to the stage as you can get without actually being on the stage. It was amazing,"  
Shinji smirked, "I guess you had a fun time,"  
"It was even better after the concert," Sumi said happily, "Afterwards, we were allowed backstage again where we met up with Priss. There was food and refreshments. We ate with her,"  
Shinji smirked, wondering if Priss ate in front of Sumi and her housemate like she usually did. Priss tended to eat rather unlady-like, shoving food in to her mouth where she should be taking tiny mouse-like bites like how most girls usually ate.  
"Afterwards, Priss had us taken home in a limo," Sumi said, "She was in the limo with us," "It sounds like you had fun," Shinji said. He believed that something like that would be fun to a fan of Priss like Sumi. To him, the thought of being so close to the stage and the super-loud speakers was not his idea of fun. Plus, he saw Priss fairly often so seeing her before the concert wouldn't mean all that much. The though of having food and refreshments sounded cool though.  
"Thank you so much, Shinji," Sumi said in sincere gratitude.  
"I-it's no problem," he shrugged.  
All I did was give her some tickets I didn't want, Shinji thought. There's no need to be that grateful.

new stuff 9/11

The next several days passed by uneventfully. It was more or less consisted of Shinji waking up at his usual time, somewhere around nine in the morning. He would languidly go about with his morning ritual of taking his morning shower. Luckily for him, Shinji now had his old room back, Ranma having chosen to take up residence on the couch, Emiko currently staying in Ranma's room.  
Shinji enjoyed sleeping in his own bed again. However, his enjoyment would be short-lived for he and Ranma would be alternating sleeping on the couch every week. For the last two week, Shinji had slept on the couch. For the next two weeks, Ranma would be sleeping on the couch. After then Shinji would be sleeping on the couch for a week where it would then switch over to Ranma then and so on. Emiko would be alternating sleeping between Ranma's and Shinji's room depending on who slept on the couch.  
Shinji enjoyed his morning shower, basically requiring it to wake himself up. Much like some people absolutely required coffee to wake up, Shinji required a shower. His walk to the school was also uneventful, Shinji never in a rush, always having left the house with plenty of time to make it there before his first class started. Oddly enough, Shinji noticed that Ranma was coming home at around the time he was on his way out to classes. It didn't occur on a daily basis, seemingly occurring every other day. "I wonder why he jogs for almost a few hours later than usual on some days," Shinji asked himself once while on his way to school. Little did he know that Ranma and Luna jogged for around three to even four hours every even day from around five to eight in the morning while Ranma jogged for close to five hours from five to ten in the morning every odd day.  
Shinji's days in school were generally uneventful. He sometimes slept through a portion of his classes, depending on how exciting or boring the subject or chapter currently being taught was.  
His time in between classes was what made Shinji actually enjoy coming to class, spending it talking to Sumi more often than not. Every here and there he would take to another classmate but he tended to talk to Sumi more often. As the days pass, Shinji became more comfortable talking to her, sometimes even initiating conversations with her, something he didn't do at all throughout the semester until very recently. Most of the times, their conversations were about nothing in particular.  
"Um, what kind of music do you listen to?" Sumi once asked from out of the blue.  
"I'm not too sure," Shinji had answered, "I used to listen to music when I was younger but kinda stopped as I got older. If I like music now, I really dunno what it would be,"  
Still lacking in social skills, Shinji had never picked up on the notion that if someone asked him about a like or dislike he was supposed to ask that same question in respond. As they always indulged in conversations, it became clear that Shinji never asked even remotely probing questions, not even questions like 'What kind of food do you like?', 'What's kind of books do you enjoy reading?', or anything of the like. Sumi on the other hand, tended to ask questions similar to that. Over their many conversations, Sumi had come to realize that Shinji never talked about his past. She had reason to believe that he had a very trouble past. What she found frustrating was that the more Shinji was shied from talking about it, the more she wanted to find out. It was very frustrating. In a sense, she knew quite a bit about him yet nothing at all. The most private information she had ever known about him was that both of his parents had died when he was younger.  
"So who do you live with?" she had asked.  
"A guy named Ranma. He took me in," Shinji had said after a long pause, "He's basically my best friend as well as my benefactor and guardian,"  
"You have no relatives?"  
"None," he replied, "Anyway, I prefer not to talking about my past,"  
"How come you don't like talking about your past?" Sumi had asked. "Sorry, but that's something I wanna forget," Shinji had replied.  
Sumi never asked anything about his past after that, tending to ask less probing questions. Before long, she knew almost all of his likes or dislikes as well as his favorite things like authors and books and movies.  
"How come you never ask me those kinda questions?" Sumi had asked once before they were expected to go to their class.  
"Like what?" Shinji had looked confused.  
"Like what my favorite color or favorite book or favorite authors are," she asked.  
Shinji had went on to mentioned that he never asked because he already knew, remembering them from times when she divulged the information during previous conversations. This surprised Sumi because it indicated that Shinji was an exceptional listener. However, she couldn't help but believe it because he actually looked like he listened intently, tending to make eye contact whenever talking to someone or listening.  
Shinji's after school activities never changed. It consisted of him heading off campus to get his usual meal. Sumi walked with Shinji to the restaurant on a few of those day. Before long, Shinji didn't even need to order the mean by full name and only needing to simply call it 'The usual' and the cashier knowing exactly what he wanted.  
Sumi walking with Shinji to the restaurant after classes for a few days. However, before long, she stopped walking with him, heading off toward 'C Cluster' where she would wait for her housemate to get out of class so she could get a ride back to the dorm, her housemate having bought a used car. Funnily enough, Meito had been able to do so because she had sold the giant poster autographed by Priss and her band that they had given one each to Sumi and Meito. Although Meito was a die-hard Priss fan, she was unable to pass up the amount of money that an even more die-hard Priss fan had offered.  
"Did you know my housemate bought a car?" Sumi had told Shinji shortly after they had emerged from 'D Cluster'.  
"Really?"  
"Yeah," Sumi had said, "She got a huge sum of money for that poster, so much that she couldn't refuse. It had been more than enough for her to buy a used car. Anyway, since I've got a ride, I guess we'll be splitting from here after class,"  
Shinji couldn't help but had felt a bit disappointed. All the did was say his farewell before heading off toward the Chinese restaurant.  
After he would get his meal, he would head back to campus and over to 'G Cluster' where he would eat his meal in silence before moving on to studying and preparing for the upcoming finals after he was finished with his meal.  
Asuka was usually in her moody self toward Shinji when she and Rei met up with him. From there, they would head toward home, Shinji carrying both of their backpacks along the way.  
Emiko would meet up with them, waiting in front of the gym and smiling when Shinji arrived at the usual time, a short time after four. From there, Asuka and Rei, given back their backpacks, would the short distance back home while Emiko and Shinji entered the gym.  
When Thursday rolled around, Emiko had not been there to meet up with him, the two of them choosing to take that day off. On that day, Shinji had gone home and spent it lounging around the house for a bit before sparring against Ranma at around five and continuing to spar until around ten.  
The time spent at the gym was rather fun despite the tediousness of constantly doing the same things day in and day out. Shinji had finally grasped the ability to talk while jump-rope without any trouble or risk of tripping. It wasn't unless he tried to turn his gaze away from the forward position did he fall.  
After the warm-ups, Emiko and Shinji would then go jogging. As the days passed, Shinji found himself having an easier and easier time finishing the mile without having to stop. He had to work on his speed though, his run usually taking around nin bacnutes and decreasing by around ten seconds every day.  
After the jog, they would do the second half of their training, Shinji doing clean and jerks and power snatch, the weights slowly increasing with every passing day, while Emiko continued to do squats, standing twists, and lunges, the weight of the dumbbells increasing ever-so-slightly with every passing day.  
On occasion, Ippo would check up on them and praise them.  
"You two are coming along fine," Ippo had said with a proud smile, "At this rate, you'll be hitting the speed bag and punching bags by the end of next week,"  
"Thanks," Shinji had said, very eager to begin learning boxing. Funnily enough, Shinji had yet to feel the urge to want to start hitting the speed bag and punching bag. He had a sense of patience that kept him well-disciplined, never even feeling the urge to give the punching bag a few good hits every time he entered.  
"You seem to be coming along fine so it's time to up the intensity a bit," Ippo had said with a grin.  
Shinji couldn't help but gulp in worry.  
"It's not much but it'll take a short time to get used to," Ippo commented, "Anyway, for the jump-rope, have it where you land on one foot, alternating landing on your left and right foot with every hop,"  
"I can do that,"  
"Also, run twice around the block," Ippo said, knowing the young man was going to hate that aspect, "Those are the only two things I'd like you to change,"  
Shinji simply sighed and said, "Okay, I'll try my best,"  
Much all the previous other days training at the gym, Shinji and Emiko would head home together after they were both done with their workouts. During that time, they would talk freely about nothing in general.  
"Um, w-what kind of music do you like?" Emiko had nervously asked one day from out of the blue, something a bit odd since Emiko never asked probing questions. It was probably because of how she was brought up, believing she should only ask questions on a need-to-know basis and a question like that was unnecessary.  
"D j vu," Shinji had said aloud, recalling Sumi asking the same thing.  
"D j vu? I never heard of them," Emiko had replied, feeling out of place. She knew nothing about music whatsoever.  
"No, nothing," Shinji said, "It's not the name of a band. It's just that I remember being asked that before,"  
"Oh,"  
"Anyway, I really dunno what kinda music I like," Shinji had stated, "I only used to listen to it when I was younger and stopped as I got older. If I listened to music nowadays, I really dunno what kinda music I would like. Why, what kinda music do you like?"  
Emiko blushed as she had quickly replied, "I-I don't know. I-I've never l-  
listened to music before,"  
"Really?"  
Emiko nodded. "Hm, we should go to a record store then," Shinji suggested, "They've got listening post with a large sample of music to listen to. Perhaps you might find something you'll like,"  
"R-really?"  
Shinji shrugged, "Sure. How about we go there this weekend? I kinda wanna start checking out some boxing magazines and the bookstore's right next door. This way, we can go together,"  
Emiko became very silent. Isn't this kind of how a date works, she thought. I remembered reading it in a manga. A guy and a girl going out and doing stuff like going to a store together is considered a date.  
"Um, if you don't want to go then that's fine," Shinji said, feeling she was simply trying to think of a way to politely decline.  
"N-no, it's fine," Emiko said, "I-I don't mind,"  
"Oh. That's cool," Shinji smiled, "When do you wanna go?"  
"A-any time is fine," she replied.  
"Um, how about after the gym then?" he suggested.  
"O-okay,"  
When the two got home, everything went about like usual. The two of them would go about their business, Emiko going to the dojo to do some katas or perhaps even spark against Asuka on occasion, Shinji taking a shower and doing some quick studying afterwards. When dinner rolled around, they all ate together, indulging iturenversation and talking about their day. After dinner, Shinji would go about sparring against Ranma until late in to the evening where he would then spend the rest of this time studying and doing homework before he fell asleep.  
The days elapsed without incident throughout the week. Before long, the weekdays passed and the weekend was just around the corner.

Emiko and Shinji were walking on their way home on Saturday at around three in the afternoon, done with their training.  
Emiko had this blush on her face. Today they would be going to the record store. She didn't know why but she had been looking forward to it. Perhaps it was because she was eager to find out what kind of music she liked.  
Unfortunately for Emiko, Shinji had completely forgotten about that plans they had made a couple of days earlier. He simply continued on his way, heading for home where he was looking forward to taking a soothing shower.  
Emiko walked quietly alongside Shinji and couldn't help but notice as Shinji said nothing as he walked right past the record store. Since there were no other record stores in the entire town, Emiko believed that that was the store that they would be going to. The fact that there was bookstore right next door like Shinji had mentioned gave more reason to believe that that was the particular stores Shinji had in mind when he had made the plan.  
It wasn't until after Shinji and Emiko arrived at home did Emiko say something.  
"Um, w-weren't we supposed to go to the record store?" she asked meekly.  
Shinji gave Emiko and odd look, a bit confused, "Huh? What for?"  
"Oh," she said, feeling a bit deflated. She was very sure she had heard Shinji say that they were to go to the record store on Saturday. Had she misheard? Shinji snapped in realization which somewhat startled Emiko, "Oh my god! I totally forgot! We were supposed to go to the record store after we were done with the gym, weren't we?" Emiko gave a meek nodded, "Um, that's what I think I heard correctly,"  
"I'm sorry, it completely slipped my mind," Shinji said apologetically, "I didn't mean for that to happen,"  
"Um, it's all right,"  
"Is it all right if I take a shower first before we go?" he asked, "I mean, we are sweaty and all from working out. And since we are home..."  
"I understand," Emiko agreed, "It's a good idea to shower before w-we head back out,"  
"Cool," Shinji said, "You wanna take a shower first or should I?"  
"Um, I-I guess I'll go,"  
"Okay,"  
Smiling, Emiko headed for the bathroom to take her shower.  
Shinji and Emiko indulged in light conversation on their way to the record stores. The streets were busier than usual, it being Saturday and not even four in the afternoon. Because of the extra pedestrians, Emiko found herself having to walk close to Shinji out of risk of accidentally being knocked over.  
The two of them arrived at the record store at four.  
Emiko giggled as she watched Shinji trying to activate the automatic door sensor.  
"C'mon, why won't the door open?" Shinji muttered, waving his hands around like an idiot as he stood in front of the door.  
After a moment, it opened and the two of them entered.  
"Have you ever been in here?" he asked her, turning toward her as they walked down a random music isle. Emiko shook her head. She regarded the store, never having been in one before.  
She noticed that the store was rather large, having two shelves which created three isles that stretched from the front to the back of the store. By the far back left wall, by where miscellaneous movies were located, there was a small machine booth.  
The two of them stopped by a booth that looked a bit like a ATM machine, a monitor screen with a small keyboard right underneath. There was a pair of large earphones resting on a small hook on the right side of the booth.  
Shinji grabbed the earphone and handed it to Emiko. She looked at it curiously.  
"The screen is touch sensitive," Shinji said, pressing the screen a few times. A second later, a massive list of music titles were listed in front of the screen.  
"Okay, what kinda music do you think you like?" Shinji asked, "There's hundreds of thousands of titles to choose from. We need to at least narrow down the search,"  
Emiko said, "Okay,"  
"Do you have any idea what kind of music you like?" he asked.  
"Um, w-what about you?" she asked.  
"I remember I kinda liked instrumentals when I used to listen to music when I was younger," Shinji replied, "I'm pretty sure I still like them now,"  
Shinji touched the screen a few times, categorizing the titles. Clicking it a few more times he categorized it based on their popularity. He began reading the titles, recognizing none of them from his world. "Here's a list of the first fifty titles," Shinji said, "I have no idea what kinda music they are but starting from here on are the most popular fifty titles," He gestured toward the earphone in Emiko's hands, "Just put those earphone on,"  
Emiko did as she was told.  
Shinji touched the screen, "All right, tell me what you think," Emiko listened intently. When she heard nothing, she gave him a confused look, "I think this is broken. I don't hear anything,"  
Shinji brought one of his ear up by one of Emiko's earphones, their cheeks almost brushing against one another as he listened. Little did she know that the closeness definitely made Emiko feel very self-conscious.  
"You're right, I don't hear anything," Shinji said after a moment, pulling away, looking at the screen, "Oh, I see what's wrong. The volume is turned too low. Here, let me turn it up a bit,"  
He pressed the screen a few times and Emiko heard the music come to.  
"That better?" he asked.  
"Y-yes," she said, blushing ever-so-slightly, "T-thanks,"  
Shinji went on to teach her how to select titles by pressing a certain combination on the screen. She picked it up right away. When she got the hang of it and was able to listen to a sample of a song for a few second before moving on to the next when she realized she didn't like how it sounded, Shinji excused himself.  
"I'll be right back," he said, turning around.  
"W-where are you going?" she asked.  
"Next door to the bookstore," he said, jerking a thumb, "I wanna go check on some boxing magazines. Don't worry, I'll be right back,"  
"But-" she began to say.  
Shinji left the store, leaving Emiko by her lonesome.  
Next door, he entered the bookstore, heading straight toward the right side where magazine racks lined the entire length of the right wall. He proceeded to check through them for any magazines that pertained to boxing. After a few minutes of searching, he found two of them located in a section that seemed to be categorized for fighting.  
Picking the magazine up, Shinji started leafing through it. He glanced toward the side and caught sight of a gorgeous woman with an unbelievable body standing by one of the magazine racks. She wore a pair of shades which Shinji found rather stupid to be wearing in a store. She looked to be around five years older than Shinji. She had long flowing mane of blond hair that came down to her slim waist. Her slender legs looked like they never ended. Her high heels made her seem slightly taller than Shinji. She gave of quite a aura of sex-appeal and had a sultry look to her. She looked like the type of woman men fantasized about. She looked oddly familiar.  
"Hi there," she smiled, very sure she knew what the young man was thinking about, leering at her like that. She didn't mind the attention, it came with the territory of being such a sexy looking fashion model.  
Shinji blushed, turning his attention away. He was still uncomfortable with talking to girls, especially to pretty ones like her.  
"H-hi," he stammered. He had caught sight of the magazine she was holding and had wanted to make a comment about it. It was a good place to start in his road to being more comfortable talking.  
He knew he needed to get over his shyness but he found it very difficult to talk to the opposite sex. Only the people he knew, and that was after being around them for a while, did he ever talk to comfortably. Emiko for instance, she was person that he had no problem talking to.  
The woman, having had her fun turned her attention back on to the magazine rack.  
"Shinji," she heard.  
She turned her attention where she caught sight of a very handsome man approaching that rather cute young man she had spoken to. He immediately caught her eye. Not only was he very handsome, but there was an aura to him.  
"W-what are you doing here?" Shinji asked, surprised, "Are you following or something?"  
He was glad Ranma was there. The having someone he was familiar with around made feel comfortable.  
Ranma chuckled, "Fool, I saw you through the window as I was jogging by. Whatcha up to?"  
"Man, you jog a lot," Shinji commented.  
"Um, yeah, I guess so," Ranma gave a bit of a smile.  
Ranma glanced toward the side where he caught sight of the beautiful woman. The woman smiled at him. However, Ranma didn't seem to even notice that she was very pretty. Perhaps it was because he was so used to dealing to pretty girls that he became desensitized. Besides, considering he actually had no problems talking to someone so gorgeous and intimidatingly-beautiful as Urd, he was more than used to talking to a pretty girl.  
"That magazine sucks," Ranma commented, gesturing toward the magazine in the woman's hands.  
Shinji snickered. He had wanted to mention that too, but perhaps in a nicer way. He had wanted to tell her that that wasn't a good choice of magazine but felt it was none of his business. He couldn't help but glance up and admire how something so hard for him like talking to a pretty girl came so easy for Ranma.  
The woman had this shocked look on her face.  
"I'm only looking through this because I did a photo spread for this magazine," she replied after a moment. Boy, was that guy going to feel like a jerk when he heard that.  
"And?" he asked, a bit confused, "What's your point?"  
"Um..." the woman found herself at a loss of words.  
Ranma turned his attention back to Shinji, "Where was I? Oh yeah, what are you doing in here?"  
"Um, I was just looking to get some boxing magazines," Shinji replied, "I read them a lot but I never actually bought any,"  
"Okay," Ranma shrugged, "Whatever floats your boat. Anyway, I was just stopping in to say hi. I'll see you around,"  
"Later," Shinji said.  
Ranma turned around to leave but stopped when the woman asked him to wait.  
"Yeah?" Ranma turned toward her.  
The woman regarded Ranma for a moment. Although she did find him handsome, she found Ranma's personality very interesting. The fact that he spoke to her without worry of what she thought meant quite a bit. Most guys said what the girls wanted to hear. This guy was different and she found it refreshing.  
"What's your name?" she asked, "I'm Melinda,"  
"Ranma," he answered.  
"And you?" she turned toward Shinji, figuring it was polite not to single one person out among the two of them.  
"S-Shinji," Shinji said nervously, wondering why she wanted to even know his name. After a moment, the name registered. She was that famous model usually found in swimsuit magazines and many other magazines. She was so famous she was known only by her first name.  
Ranma thought for a moment, "Hey, aintcha a model or something? That name sounds familiar,"  
"That's me," she smiled, removing her shades to reveal beautiful blue eyes, her most noticeable trademark.  
"Well, it's nice meeting ya," he said, "See you around," He turned toward Shinji, "See you around too,"  
Before the woman could say anything, Ranma left the store. Shinji noticed this very intrigued look on the woman's face. It didn't take him long to realize that it was probably because of what Ranma said that made her seemingly paying extra attention toward the him.  
"Um, n-nice meeting you," Shinji said, quickly heading off to pay for his magazines.  
The woman watched as Shinji went over to the other side of the store where he quickly paid for his magazines and left.  
Shinji didn't seem to realize that he noticed the same thing Ranma noticed. The only difference was Ranma actually spoke what was on his mind. Do girls like that, if you say what's on your mind, Shinji thought to himself. But what if you hurt their feelings? Argh, I don't understand how I'm supposed to be able to talk to girls. A want to say what's on my mind but I'm scared it'll hurt their feelings. How the heck does Ranma do it so well?  
Shinji sighed, figuring it was a mystery he was never going to figure out. He looked at his watch and noticed that a half hour had already past since he left Emiko in the record store.  
"She's probably getting bored listening to samples by now," he told himself.  
Shinji walked next door where he saw Emiko right by where he had left her. However, there were two guys standing by her, one on each side of the booth. They were hitting on her and Emiko's posture looked defiant.  
I'm not supposed to do anything rash on this world, Emiko thought to herself. I'm alone and I could get in serious trouble if I do something drastic. She wouldn't had minded slitting one of the guys throat to get her point across, that she wanted to be left alone.  
"P-please, leave me alone," Emiko stammered, fighting back her anger. The people on this world did not know who she was and she had to allow herself to remember that.  
"C'mon, it's just some karaoke," one of the guys said, "It'll just be the three of us. It'll be fun,"  
Shinji nervously approached, not really knowing how he should deal with such a situation. Although she seemed to have been acting very much like a normal girls, Shinji knew Emiko was the type of girl that could definitely take care of herself. Would she be angry if he tried to help her out? Perhaps she didn't want to be helped. But then again, perhaps she wanted to be helped.  
Shinji's eyes widened when he recognized both of the guys standing by her. They were the two guys that had been with Tou that day.  
"Stay the hell away from her!" Shinji shouted, his worry and anxiety suddenly replaced by anger. He didn't care if Emiko was going to be angry with him. Those two guys were Tou's friends. He knew the saying 'You are who you hang out with' and believed that those two are like Tou and that meant bad news.  
Emiko and the two guys turned their attention toward Shinji.  
"S-Shinji," Emiko was very surprised to see him.  
The two guys looked at each other, not recognizing Shinji.  
"Get a load of the runt," one guy said to his friend.  
"Who the hell are you?" the short-haired man said.  
Shinji's heart was racing as his adrenaline kicked in. This was a situation he had to confront head-on and could not avoid. He needed to get Emiko out of trouble. There was a chance they had weapons.  
"Emiko, please, come here," Shinji said in a commanding voice. He needed her to understand exactly what he meant.  
Oddly, Emiko, not used being told what to do, actually listened. She removed her earphones and proceeded toward Shinji. "You're gonna go with the runt?" the one with the short hair sneered, grabbing on to Emiko.  
Emiko, reacting on instinct, grabbed the wrist of the grabbing arm with her free hand and twisted it, sending the guy flipping toward the side where he landed on his back.  
"I said to leave me alone," she narrowed her eyes at him.  
Shinji gulped. The guy was definitely going to be angry.  
"You goddamn bitch!" the guy sneered, getting up to his feet.  
His body moving on his own, Shinji took a stepped between the guy and Emiko. Unfortunately, he was not prepared to be hit so blindly as he was punched right in the face, the impact sending him staggering backwards and in to Emiko where he fell down and on top of her.  
"Fight!" some young customer shouted.  
Shinji winced in excruciating pain. That punch hurt like hell. The short-  
haired man definitely had some form of martial arts experience to be able to punch like that. It was very unfortunate that he used his training for something other than self-defense.  
Emiko's eyes widened as she remained on the floor, gazing up as she saw Shinji getting back up to his feet. She had caught a glimpse at the nasty gash by his left eyebrow, a small trail of blood trickling down the side of his face, when Shinji and turned over on his hands and knees to get back up to his feet.  
The short-haired man punched at Shinji, Shinji weaving toward the side and seizing the extended arm, intent on putting his opponent in the exact same hold Ranma had put on him the other day. Ranma had showed him and Shinji knew exactly how to do it.  
Unfortunately, Shinji was no where near as fast nor strong as Ranma. The moment he had seized the extended around, he found his opponent overpowering him and pulling his arm back toward his body, using his other arm to punch Shinji in the face, opening up a gash by his right eyebrow. This sent Shinji staggering where he fell back down to the ground, where he landed on Emiko again as she was getting back to her own feet, bringing her once again back to the ground.  
Before Shinji had a chance to get back up, a wicked foot hit him in the side of the head, sending his head crashing in to the side of one of the two shelves that lined the center of the store, opening a cut up by the right side of his scalp. The shelf shook from the impact, several boxes of videos falling off and on to Shinji's back as he was on his hands and knees. "Shinji!" Emiko called out for him. She reached for her dagger only to find that she had none. She had actually forgotten to bring one. What kind of ninja was she to forgot something so important? Through eyes now stinging with blood, Shinji glanced up and noticed that Emiko was a short distance away but unharmed. That made him forget the pain. Although he knew that she could take care of herself, something deep down inside him made him want to protect her.  
He smiled. Good, she's fine.  
Shinji rolled around on the floor so that his head was angled away from the opponent, presenting his head as a harder target. However, Shinji had opened his right arm to present a new target for the man to attack. Little did the man know that Shinji was allowing himself to be kicked in the ribs. The moment Shinji felt the impact of the foot digging in to his ribs, he winced in pain as he brought is arm back down and closed his arm around it, trapping the foot in his right armpit while snaking his arm around the leg so that his forearm dug in to the man's Achilles, the tendon that ran from the heel and up toward the calf muscle. He had the hand rest on the inside of the elbow of his left arm as he brought his left hand up to grab on the man's shin.  
The man's eyes widened as he hopped on one leg as Shinji, his face very bloody got up to his feet. Shinji had him in an 'Achilles Lock', a devastating powerful submission move.  
Shinji sneered, hating his opponent. This man was much like Tou. He needed to be taught a lesson. He kicked forward with one leg, kicking the guy right in the stomach while simultaneously leaning back while tightening his hold around the seized foot, digging his forearm in to the man's Achilles. A slight turning motion Shinji did cranked the lock and ended rupturing the tendon.  
The short-haired man screamed out in pain. Shinji, both feet firmly on the floor, released his left arm, the right arm still holding the man's foot. In a quick snapping-like motion, he brought it down and underneath the man's extended leg while twisting his entire body, the entire leg twisting with him.  
Shinji had executed a technique called the Dragon Screw.  
The twisting motion ended up causing the man's entire body to twist, moving in the same spiraling motion as his leg. The man ended up spiraling toward the left where he crashed in to the booth, knocking it over on to its side, the man knocked unconscious.  
The friend, seeing just how easily his friend was incapacitated, knew he had no chance against the run. He cautiously backed away, scooting around the shelf. Once around, he ran down one of the other isles, heading for the door, tripping once before he jetted out of the store.  
After a moment, breathing heavily, Shinji fell down on to his backside, very tired. The fight had lasted around twenty second but it had felt like an hour to him.  
Shinji looked down and noticed the drops of blood forming by his thighs.  
He brought a hand up to his face and touched it. When he brought his hand down and checked, he was shocked at how much blood.  
"Shinji," Emiko rushed toward him, "Don't move, you're badly hurt,"  
"I don't feel so good," he said to no one in particular. He was seeing white spots and he felt this throbbing sensation by his temples. He was having trouble remembering what was going on. Everything felt kind of surreal.  
"Just rest, I'll go get help,"

Ranma was brainstorming what to do as he sat by the back patio. It was around seven in the evening. He had finished his jog not too long ago and was wondering if there was anything to do to pass his time. No one else was around except for him and Luna.  
"What seems to be the problem with you?" Luna asked, noticing Ranma had been sitting there almost perfectly still since he got back.  
Ranma leaned back, propping himself on his arm, looking up at Luna, "I have no idea what to do,"  
"You mind if I sit here?" she asked.  
"Sure, go right ahead," he smiled warmly.  
Luna sat down next to him, her legs dangling over the patio.  
"What do you mean by you having no idea what to do?" she asked.  
Ranma shrugged, "I find myself with a lot of spare time. There's no bad guy to fight. No evil corporation to take down. No Angels attacking this or other worlds. And I'm home on my own world and not stuck on a different one trying to get home. Basically, I feel like I'm not doing anything," "What's wrong with that?" she asked, puzzled.  
"Well, there's nothing wrong with that, it's just a bit weird not having to do something," Ranma commented.  
The phone rang. After the third ring, Luna noticed Ranma had no intention of getting up to answer it.  
"Aren't you going to answer it?" she asked.  
Ranma shook his head, "That's what answering machines are for,"  
"But what happen if it's someone calling you to say you won a lot of money?" she asked. "What is that, some kinda female thing?" Ranma smirked, "What the heck can they give me? It's not like I need money. I'm rich, afterall,"  
Luna sighed. She got up and walked over to the phone and picked it up. She had answered the phone a few times, having learned from Akane and felt comfortable answering on. It wasn't all that hard.  
"Hello?" she asked.  
"Luna, this is Emiko," Emiko recognized her voice.  
"Hey, Emiko, how are you doing?" Luna asked, a bit surprised Emiko knew how to make a phone call, "Where are you? Dinner will start soon," "I'm not too sure," came the reply.  
Luna sensed the worry in Emiko's voice. The technology of this world was so advanced that it sounded as if Emiko was talking right next to her. "Is something wrong?" Luna asked, knowing that something had to be wrong. She had suddenly realized that it had to be the case for Emiko to sound like that and be using the phone, something Luna was sure she didn't know how to use to call someone.  
"I'm at a hospital," came Emiko's reply, "Shinji's hurt,"  
"What?" Luna's eyes widened.  
Luna gestured toward Ranma who was still sitting where he was but was looking at her. The gesture made Ranma get up and approach her.  
"Something the matter?" he asked, a bit curious as to what made the color suddenly draining from her face.  
Luna looked worried.  
"Something happened to Shinji,"

Shinji and Emiko were at the hospital. Shinji, bandages wrapped around his head, was sitting upright in his hospital bed. He looked like he wasn't all that hurt. The three gashes he had, one by each brow and the third on the side of his head, despite being deep, weren't much to worry about. They would definitely leave a scar though. "I'm fine," Shinji told to Emiko.  
"A-are you sure?" she asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I've got a bit of a concussion from when my head hit against that shelf, but I'll be fine,"  
"That's good to hear," Emiko was relieved. She had been really worried about him in the ambulance ride to the hospital. Shinji had been conscious the whole time, talking to the EMTs that were attending him. She had listened as he explained what kind of wounds he had. The EMTs had actually been worried that there would be some brain damage when they saw the head wounds that Shinji had. However, since he was conscious and aware of what was going on, they realized they didn't have much to worry about.  
"What happened to the guy I, um, beat up?" Shinji said, giving a meek laugh. He felt a bit bad that it felt good that he beat him up. He couldn't help but wonder if the punch had been intended for him or Emiko when he had stepped in between the two of them.  
Emiko shrugged, "Does it matter?"  
Frankly, she didn't care what happened to the guy. She hoped he never walked correctly again. "Well, um, I do feel bad about what I did," Shinji said after a moment, a bit ashamed that he had let his anger get the better of him, "I was kind of out of it and a bit disoriented and hadn't been paying attention to what was going around me so I didn't see what they did to him,"  
"If you really want to know, I saw him carted off in another one of those, ambulance you call it? I think he was taking to see another cleric," she answered.  
Shinji smiled warmly. Emiko was still unfamiliar with this world. That was very cute.  
"W-what?" she asked, a bit self-conscious.  
"Clerics don't exist in this world," Shinji answered, "They seem to only exist it yours. It kinda makes sense since if they had clerics here, my head wouldn't be bandaged like this,"  
"You've got a point," she said meekly, embarrassed about being so ignorant about this world. After a moment, she fetched the piece of paper, "Oh yeah, I called the number you gave me. Luna and Ranma are on their way,"  
"Did you have problems learning how to use the phone?" Shinji asked.  
Emiko shook her head, "No, one of the people called it for me and gave me the phone after they dialed the number,"  
"Cool," he said, "Heh, if I think about it, Luna's going think something's wrong with me because she's constantly healing me,"  
Emiko giggled, "Now that I think of it, you might have a point,"  
The two of them laughed for a minute. When they stopped, Emiko felt more at ease being there. She had no idea where she was but the laugh and at least knowing Shinji was there with her made her feel better.  
"Um, y-you're a very good fighter," Emiko commented, blushing slightly, wanting to continue conversing. She had come to realize that liked talking to him. Their conversations were slightly awkward but they seemed to be less awkward the more they talked.  
Shinji blushed slightly from the praise, "T-thanks. I-it means a lot coming from you,"  
"Um, what made you jump in front of me?" Emiko asked.  
The question seemed to stump Shinji, "Y'know what? I really don't know. I think it was because I thought he was going to hit you or something,"  
"R-really?" Emiko asked. This was the first time anyone actually did something like that. Shinji knew she was a very skilled fighter, even able to beat him in sparring, yet he still did that. That was rather chivalrous now that she thought about it. Shinji smirked, "What surprised me is that you don't pull out your dagger. I know you carry it with you all the time,"  
Emiko became silent.  
"It would've been really bad if pulled it out and even hurt one of them," Shinji commented, "If that had happened, we probably would've been carted off to jail,"  
"I-I forgot it," Emiko said softly. "Forgot what?"  
"M-my dagger," she said, "I-I forgot to bring it with me,"  
"Really? I thought you never forget it," he was surprised, "I thought you never go anywhere without it,"  
"I-I don't know," she said, "I did carry it with me this morning. However, after we stopped by the house and I took a shower, I forgot to bring it with me when we went back out and to that store,"  
Shinji scratched his head, "Really? I guess something must've been on your mind then. It's probably just an isolated incident. However, if you think about it, it's probably really good that you didn't carry it with you,"  
"Y-you think?" she asked. She didn't even know why she questioned him. There was nothing good in not carrying a weapon. Right? Right?  
"Well, you're a really good fighter," Shinji said, "It's not like you need a weapon anyway. Heck, you're better than me and I managed to beat that guy without a weapon. For you, it would have been easy as cake,"  
Emiko blushed slightly. She never really thought about it. This world was indeed different and she had yet to ever need to pull out her weapon. Heck, if she thought about it, she wouldn't had needed to pull out a weapon against that short-haired man if she were fighting him. What was strange was that she felt the need to pull it out when she saw what he was doing to Shinji.  
"I'm glad I managed to beat that guy," Shinji sighed in relief, "He was scary,"  
"The technique you used on him was very effective," Emiko commented.  
"Y-you think so? Thanks," Shinji smiled meekly, "Like I said before, it means a lot coming from you,"  
"You've gotten a lot better since I last saw you," she added.  
The thought of her being able to beat Shinji crossed her mind. She hadn't sparred against him in a very long time and it made her a bit curious as to how good a fighter he had become. Afterall, she had been gone back to her own world for a few months and they hadn't sparred at all during that time nor afte a ge had came back.  
"Although your technique was very effective against him," Emiko said after a moment, "They seemed very brutal,"  
"Oh, you mean that Achilles Lock?" Shinji asked, "Yeah, I guess you do have a point. I kinda lost my cool back there. What would you had done in that situation?"  
Emiko smirked, "Something more simple, that's for sure. A simple punch to the solar plexus would have stopped him dead in his tracks,"  
Shinji shrugged, "You do have a point there. I dunno if you noticed, but he actually countered my first attack,"  
"I noticed," Emiko said, "You had dodge and grabbed his extended arm when you dodge the first punch but were to slow to utilize an effective counter attack before he attacked again," "T-thanks," Shinji gave a meek laugh.  
Emiko immediately felt bad for having hurt Shinji's feeling, "I-I'm sorry,"  
Shinji chuckled, "Don't worry. I'm just joking. I definitely noticed that I was too slow to do anything about that. I learned that the hard way,"  
He smirked as he pointed toward his bandaged head.  
Emiko giggled.

new stuff 9/12

Luna and Ranma entered the room and saw the young girl laughing.  
"Did we come at a wrong time?" Ranma smirked, "Want us to come back?"  
Shinji and Emiko both looked toward the door where they saw the two of them. They both blushed.  
Ranma and Luna looked at each other and couldn't help but smile. Both of them knew that Shinji and Emiko would look nice together yet neither of them knew that the other knew.  
"Are you okay, Shinji?" Luna approached the bed.  
"Yeah, a few gashes but other than that, I'll be all right," he answered.  
Ranma smiled, "Can I see?"  
"Is it guy thing?" Luna commented, "What's so interesting about seeing a deep cut?"  
Ranma grinned, "Of course,"  
Luna sighed. She then shrugged and said, "Well, I guess you're in luck since Shinji needs to remove the bandages so I can heal his wounds,"  
"You can't heal through bandages?" Ranma asked bluntly, "What kinda healer are you?"  
Luna laughed, unbothered by such a commented. She had gotten used to Ranma's lack of thinking before what he said.  
"I can heal him from a mile of away if I wanted to," Luna smirked, "However, I'd like to know the extent of his injuries because I want to make sure that there are no scars. When not healing a wound directly, there's a slight chance a scar or mark could be left behind. However, what I do, I heal him so that everything there's no indication of him ever being injured in the first place,"  
"I thought that's what healing spells do in the first place," Ranma commented.  
"More or less," she responded, "However, unlike normal heal spells, I perform a more powerful close-ranged one. That's all,"  
"Okay," Ranma accepted it at face value. He didn't really understand the difference but he didn't bother to argue.  
Shinji removed his bandages.  
"Ooh, those are pretty deep cuts," Ranma whistled, "Stitches and all. Good job,"  
"Thanks,"  
"Did you just praise him for getting deep cuts?" Luna asked, very confused.  
"Guy thing," Ranma grinned.  
"I bet," Luna said with a sigh. She then proceeded to inspected the cuts, "So, this is how this worlds heal wounds, huh? It's very primitive and will definitely leave a scar. But then again, if this world can't do clerical spells, I guess this is rather effective,"  
"I guess," Ranma shrugged.  
Luna said a few word as her hand suddenly started to glow. Ranma and Emiko watched as the gashes on Shinji's right eyebrow closed off and disappeared. She did the same for the gash on his left eyebrow and by the side of his head. When she was done, Shinji looked like he had never been hurt.  
"That's cool," Ranma said, "I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching that,  
"If you want, and are masochistic enough, why not wound yourself and I'll heal you?" Luna smirked.  
"Really? Lettme try," Ranma said.  
To everyone's surprise, Ranma removed the gold arm brace that covered his right forearm, placing it on the floor. He then jammed his left index finger in to his exposed right forearm. The finger actually dug in right up to the second knuckle. When he pulled his finger out, there was a finger sized hole.  
"Oh my god! I was only kidding!" Luna gasped.  
She quickly extended her hands and said a few words, her hand glowed as the hole closed up and eventually disappeared. Everyone was in a state of shock as they watched Ranma open and close his fist a few times to make sure the ligaments weren't damaged.  
"Wow, it does work," Ranma commented, "Being healed feels kinda cool. There's a slight tingling sensation,"  
When he looked at Luna, Emiko, and Shinji and noticed a stunned look on their faces. They couldn't believe what they had just seen. Ranma had just stuck his finger in to his own arm. "I-I-I can't believe I just witness a guy jam a finger in to his own arm, just like that," Luna said.  
"I did it because you said I should try," Ranma replied.  
"I was only joking around! I didn't mean it seriously!" Luna said loudly, "I can't believe you could do that!"  
Shinji was poking his own forearm. After a minute, he asked, "How is that possible?"  
"How is what possible?" Ranma asked.  
"You just jammed a finger in your forearm," Shinji commented, "First off, how is that possible? Second of all, it's your own arm you just jammed your finger in to. How can you just hurt yourself, just like that. I think we just witnessed a form of self-mutilation right there,"  
"I wouldn'tve done it if Luna here didn't say so," Ranma stated.  
"That's not the point," Luna said, "Frankly, I'm shocked at how you can be so disciplined as to actually jam a finger in to your own arm,"  
"I can rip out my own heart if I wanted to," Ranma chuckled.  
Everyone just stared at him. They couldn't tell if he was joking or not. However, the had a funny feeling that he actually could do something like that.  
Ranma grinned, "Why the heck do you think my God-self was able to so easily plunge that Lance of Longinus right in to his own heart? It's kinda similar,"  
Everyone became deathly silent.  
"Of course, it's not like I would do it," Ranma said, "Why the heck would I do that, rip out my own heart? It'd probably really hurt,"  
"You think?" Luna asked, smirking.  
"Anyway, we're getting off the subject here," Ranma said, putting his arm brace back on. Little Luna or Emiko know that the brace he was putting on weighed a thousand pounds. "Man, I'm glad I was able to heal you," Luna commented, "Imagine what it would've been if I couldn't," Ranma didn't seem all that bothered, "That's not all that bad. Even if you didn't, the wound'll heal after a few weeks. However, unlike now, I'd have a cool scar,"  
Luna said nothing. She sighed. It was obvious she didn't know Ranma that well.  
"Man, I would've been cool if you were around helping out when Angels attacked this world," Ranma said, "That way, if anyone got hurt, which a lot of us did, you would've been able to help heal us,"  
"Why? Perhaps if you remembered to removed your arm braces, you wouldn'tve needed to be healed," Ranma shrugged, "I guess so. But then again, I forgot and Luna wasn't around to help around. However, I guess we did well in spite of it,"  
"Did well? You died in the process," Shinji said. Ranma nodded, smiling, "Not a bad tradeoff I believe,"  
Everyone sighed. Just when they thought they had an idea they knew what kind of person Ranma was, he said something like that to make them realize they knew nothing about him.  
"Anyway, now that Shinji's healed, let's get going," Ranma said.

Shinji and Ranma faced each other in the dojo. Shortly after having come home, they had eaten a late dinner, having arrived home later than dinner. However, no one in the house had worried for Ranma had left a note that Shinji had gotten hurt and he and Luna had gone to check up on him.  
It was now somewhere around nine.  
When Shinji came back, he had been barraged with as series of queries, most of them from Akane on what had happened and if he was all right. After a short time, Akane was satisfied that he was okay, especially after Ranma had mentioned that Luna had healed Shinji at the hospital.  
"So, what kinda moves didja use on your opponent?" Ranma asked, wanting to hear the juicy details. He and Luna had heard an abridged version of what had happened while on their way back from the hospital.  
"An Achilles Lock followed up with a Dragon Screw," Shinji said as he and Ranma continued to circle one another.  
Ranma smirked, "Those are some rather brutal moves. Why'd ya hafta use something like that?"  
"My opponent was very skilled," Shinji said, "As a matter of fact, he was the exact same guy you did that Shoulder Lock and Dragon Sleeper on the other day,"  
"You mean the guy with the short-hair?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. He was very skilled, a martial artist as a matter-of-  
fact,"  
"He was?" Ranma was surprised, "I didn't notice,"  
Shinji chuckled.  
"Well, I'm glad everything turned out fine," Ranma smiled, "Sure, you took a few scrapes, but you came out okay and that's what matters,"  
"Yeah,"  
Ranma smiled, "Since it seems like you can do both striking and grappling moves, which one do you feel more comfortable doing, striking or grappling?"  
"I dunno,"  
"Well, since you're going to be learning striking moves from Ippo, how about I show you some grappling moves?" Ranma smiled.  
"R-really?" Shinji's eyes widened in surprised. Shinji knew several grappling moves and would love to know more. If he thought about it, he knew only one lock per joint and no variations of it. Ranma narrowed his eyes, "Of course, for me to teach you, you have to swear to use it only in self-defense,"  
"Of course," Shinji said confidently.  
"All right, let's begin,"

Shinji and Emiko took Sunday off from training. Shinji spent a good portion of his afternoon and evening in the dojo training with Ranma, learning grappling moves. Although Shinji did know a single particular joint lock, Ranma spent his time showing him variations of a certain joint locks. By the end of the day, Shinji had learned one wrist grab escape effectively.  
"I thought you were going to show me some holds and locks," Shinji had commented after he was being shown a wrist grab escape.  
"Since when did I say I was gonna show you holds and locks? Ranma smirked, "I said I'll show you grapple moves. This is indeed a grapple move, at least what you can do to escape it. Anyway, you're gonna hafta be patient. Before you start learning more grabs and locks, you're expected to learn escapes. It's much like how before you started even power punches, you spent your time learning how to do a simple jab correctly. I wanna build you a good foundation before showing you the kinda grapple moves you were expecting to learn today,"  
"Oh,"  
"Anyway, I'll show you a new escape every day," Ranma had said, "As you can tell, this is a much better variation than trying to break the hold using your strength or actually hitting the guy to get him to release his grip. In case you're wondering, that escape is only one out of the hundred or so I showed Asuka,"  
"That makes sense," Shinji said, "I was wondering what the heck Asuka does that makes it so hard to grab her. I stopped grabbing her wrist a while ago,"  
Ranma chuckled, "It only took you, what, a few months before you realized you can't grab her? That's because I taught her anti-grapple moves. Those moves are more geared toward someone like her who I believe should avoid the fight. With you, you're a guy and can basically power your way out of something like this. I just teach these kinda moves to you in case you have to fight a significantly stronger opponent. This way, you can break out of such a hold through different ways. Y'see, in a way, rather than having to punch a guy to get him to release his hold, you can simply flick your wrist to escape. However, for a situation to escalate up to point where the guy grabs you usually tend to be when a fight is inevitable so you'd only end up punching him anyway,"  
Shinji asked, "How come you never taught me these moves?"  
"You never asked,"  
Shinji fell to the ground.

Shinji walked in to his first class. He was tired and wouldn't mind getting some more sleep. His body ached from having trained for too long yesterday. As he sat down, he looked at his hands. His walk to school had gave him time to think to himself. During his walk, he had come to realize what kind of opponent he had fought in the record store on Saturday. Despite having to fight a very skilled opponent much stronger to him, Shinji had actually won.  
"Man, I actually beat that guy," Shinji said to himself, not paying much attention to anything in particular. In a one-on-one fight, Shinji had won.  
"Beat what guy?" he heard Sumi's voice behind him.  
Shinji started. He quickly turned around to face her.  
"Oh, it's you. G'morning," Shinji smiled.  
"Good morning," she replied.  
"Guess what?" he smirked, "You know that short-haired guy that was with your boyfriend, I mean your ex-boyfriend, Tou?"  
Sumi nodded, "Um, yeah, what about him?"  
"I bumped in to him the other day," Shinji wondered if he was bragging. It sure felt like it. However, he believed that it was good to let her know.  
Sumi gasped, "Y-you did?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Um, I don't think he recognized me though,"  
She sighed in relief, "That's good to hear. Did anything happen?"  
Shinji thought about it for several long moments. He really wanted to tell but if he did, would it meant he was bragging? Ranma had done countless things yet he had never ever pointed it out. A feat like defeating a larger and stronger opponent seemed to pale in comparison to some of the feats Ranma had done. And Ranma never bragged about it.  
"Nah, nothing happened,"

The week passed by uneventful. When Friday rolled around, Ippo approached Shinji and Emiko as they entered the gym, finished with their jog.  
"I've been watching you, Shinji," Ippo smiled proudly, "You're coming along fine. Not only have you already managed to jump-rope, alternating from one leg to another, but you haven't tripped once this entire week. As of today, your entire training will be upped a step in terms of impact. Today, you start doing boxing,"  
"R-really?" Shinji was surprised, "I-I've improved that much? I thought I wasn't going to be doing boxing for a whole month,"  
Ippo nodded, "Well, that's true, but giving how fast you've improved, it seems you can move up earlier,"  
"Cool," Shinji smiled, "What would you like me to learn?"  
"From now on, you'll be doing jump-rope but this time, with every hop, you're to have the jump-rope go around twice with every," Ippo started off, "Basic, much like the way Emiko has been doing it with three passes per hop, you'll just do it with two. Do you think you can do that?"  
"Um, I-I think I can. I'll probably hafta get used to it like when I first started," Shinji commented.  
"That's fine," Ippo said, "Do that for half an hour for warm-up. When you finish that, go about jogging around the block. But this time, try and jog three times around. I know you're not quite used to going around twice, but you'll be used to it in a day or so. Bumping your jog up to three miles will be quite a bit of a push for you, which is what you want because you need to constantly keep your body right by the edge of exhaustion,"  
"T-three miles? Um, I-I'll try," Shinji said after a few moments. Although he was starting to get used to jogging, he still didn't care all that much for it. Jogging tired him out the most by far.  
"When you're done and get back to the gym, do your usual clean and jerk and power snatch exercise for an hour," Ippo said.  
"How come you only want me to only do jump-rope for half an hour instead of an hour," Shinji asked, "At that rate, I'd be done a half and hour earlier than I usually am,"  
Ippo smiled, "No. That's because when you're doing weightlifting, you'll be moving on to the punching bag for half an hour,"  
"R-really?" Shinji's eyes widened in anticipation.  
Ippo nodded, "Yeah. However, for now, since you have excellent form, just work on jabbing the bag to get your jab stronger. Alternate jabbing with your left and right arm for the half-hour,"  
"I can do that," Shinji smiled, looking forward to doing some punching bag.  
"After a few days, you can move on to doing jabs and straight punches," Ippo stated, "However, just continue doing jabs until I tell you the time is right,"  
"That's fine with me," Shinji said happily.  
"Um, w-what about me?" Emiko asked.  
Ippo smiled, "You much like what you're doing now, also doing jump-rope for a half-hour. However, when Shinji's doing punching bag, you'll be doing speed bag,"  
"Speed bag?" she asked curiously.  
"Don't worry, I'll show you how it works," he answered.  
"O-okay,"  
"All right, continue on with your training, however, stop after around forty-  
five minutes. I need around fifteen minutes to teach you how to put tape on your hands for when you're to put on boxing gloves," he said, "You two will start doing the new routine tomorrow,"

The next day, Shinji was opening and closing his hands, both of them taped up like Ippo had showed him.  
"How come you hafta tape up your hands?" Shinji had asked the other day when he and Emiko were being taught, "I mean, you're wearing gloves. So what's the use?"  
"They're used to protect not the other boxer but yourself," came the answer, "That's because gloves provide a bit of protection, but they don't prevent you from ripping the skin on your knuckles when you punch. Basically taping up your hands help keep your hands from hurting after you punch,"  
"I figure gloves do that," Shinji commented.  
"No, you wearing gloves protect your opponent when you punch," Ippo smirked, "Wearing tape on your hand help protect your hands when you punch,"  
Shinji seemed a bit confused. However, he wasn't going to question Ippo's explanation so he accepted it. As Shinji continued to open and close his hands to help break in the recently-  
applied tape, Emiko, who had been sitting next to him, turned her attention toward him.  
"Did I get it right?" she asked, holding her one taped hand forward.  
Shinji took her hand and looked at it, his touch making her feel somewhat self-conscious. Although she was shy about being touched, she didn't seem to shy-away when he took her hand.  
"Um, you almost got it right," Shinji commented, holding his hand forward for comparative observation, "You forgot to have the tape snake between your fingers like mine. Y'see? Notice how I've got the tape right around my fingers and yours doesn't,"  
"Oh," Emiko said, a bit disappointed in herself. Although new at this, she was a bit annoyed that she didn't pick it up right away. Shinji didn't seem to have problems picking it up.  
Shinji undid the wrappings and proceeded to give instructions as to what she was supposed to do. She listened intently as he explained everything he was doing. After a few minutes, the tape were nicely wrapped around one of her hands.  
"T-thanks," she said, looking at her hand, noticing a job well done.  
"No problem," he smiled, warmly.  
She has small hands, Shinji thought. He wondered if she had the smallest hands out of all the girls he knew. Although she knew how to generate a lot of power from her small frame, Emiko was small nonetheless. Her hands showed it. They were cute too.  
What am I thinking, Shinji thought. This is Emiko. She can use these hands to kill a person with no problem. It's no wonder how such small hands could be so deadly. But then again, who am I to judge. You can't judge a book by its cover, afterall.  
Emiko started feeling a bit self-conscious when she noticed him regarding her taped hand for a moment. Did she have ugly hands? Was it because of her nails? Did she need what this world called a manicure? A ot cure? A ninja like shouldn't be thinking of frivolous things such as manicures!  
"H-how did you learn how to tape your hands so quickly?" Emiko asked. She was surprised how Shinji knew how to do it all on his own after only learning it once from Ippo.  
"I read about it in one of the boxing magazine I picked up," Shinji smirk, assuming that she was going to ask how he was able to pick it up so quick.  
"Ah," she smirked, not feeling quite so bad.  
"Oh yeah, speaking of which, last week, when you were in the record store and I was in the book store, didja happen to find out what kinda music you like?" he asked from out of the blue.  
Emiko nodded, "I think so. I come to like 'implemental' music, whatever that means. I liked slow ones that seemed to have piano in it,"  
"I think you mean 'instrumental'," Shinji smiled warmly, "That's pretty cool, I like that music as well. We seem to like the same music,"  
"That's rather reassuring,"

Shinji jabbed at the farthest right water-filled punching bag the next day. He was sweating quite a bit at the time, a bit tired from his weightlifting workout. Eager to begin his new exercise, Shinji had pushed himself a bit harder than usual on the clean and jerks and power snatch exercises, taking it upon himself to lift more weight than he was used to. It was because since his warm-  
up and his roadwork exercises had been increased in intensity that he should natural increase his weightlifting intensity as well.  
Shinji found jabbing the punching bag more along the lines of a cool-down than an actual exercise. So used to punching from his sparring sessions against Ranma, Shinji knew it would take quite a bit more strenuous of punching exercises to tire him out.  
The bag swung ever-so-slightly on its chain, Shinji's punch not strong enough to make it really swing.  
"Excellent form, Shinji," Ippo complimented him as he approached the young man. Having left Emiko alone after teaching her how to use the speed bag on the back left of the gym, he had wanted to check up on Shinji to see how he was doing. He had also found out a while back that a compliment helped boost Shinji's morale and dedication. Then again, wasn't that how it was for everyone?  
"Thanks," he smiled, continuing to jab.  
Ippo said, "Your jab is at the perfect height also. It's adjusted to a man of a slightly taller height than you, too. That's understandable since if you plan on actually fighting in a higher weight class than you're supposed to, you're opponents will tend to be taller than you to support extra weight. Speaking of which, how goes the weight-gain?"  
Shinji paused to look toward Ippo, a meek smile on his lips, "Well, I'm really not too sure. I haven't weighed myself since I started training here. Ranma said that I shouldn't weigh myself until the day of the pro-test,"  
Ippo regarded Shinji for a moment. Shinji had probably gained very little weight over the past few weeks he had been training. However, this was because he was actually losing his whatever little bodyfat he had to begin with and building muscles in its place. In a sense, he probably lost around five pounds of fat and gained around ten pounds of muscles, leading it to look as if he only gained five pounds over the weeks.  
"You look to be nearing that of a Welterweight now," Ippo commented, "That's around a hundred and forty seven pounds,"  
"Is that good?" Shinji asked. He didn't care about gaining a slight bit of weight if it was muscle. However, he did not want to gain bulky muscles or such. He wanted a tight compact-looking body and if that meant being around that weight, then so be it.  
Ippo nodded, "It's good and bad. Since it seems like we're going to bring you up to a Heavyweight weight class, you're going to need to gave a lot of weight on you. However, for boxing, your frame is actually geared more toward being a Featherweight, around a hundred and twenty six pounds or less. I know, that's actually less weight than when you started training here, but for a sport like boxing, you usually lose a lot of bodyfat training so you slim down. Because of the bodyfat you lose, your stamina and speed skyrockets because your body no longer needs to carry that extra fat that you were sporting before you started training,"  
"Cool," Shinji smiled, "I don't mind that,"  
"Anyway, continue on as you were doing," Ippo said, "After a few days, move on to doing straights and doing combinations of jabs and straight,"  
"I understand," Shinji said.  
He glanced toward the other side of the gym where he saw Emiko as she went about doing the speed bag. Since she was small in size, she was on the far left side of the row of speed bags, the lowest one of the five speed bags. She wasn't wearing boxing gloves like Shinji was but her hands were taped up, both of them taped by herself.  
"Um, h-how's Emiko doing?" he asked out of curiosity.  
"She's doing fine," Ippo replied, "It took her a few minutes to get used to the timing but she picked it up right away. It's kinda disappointing that she's only here to train to get in to shape, as if she isn't in good enough shape as it is, and not here actually box,"  
"Why do you ask that?" Shinji asked curiously.  
"She'd be a good boxer," Ippo said without hesitation, "She has superior reflexes, speed, and balance. With a bit of power training, her punches would be powerful,"  
"T-they're not powerful?" Shinji asked. Her punches may not be powerful, which he doubted, but he was sure her slaps were. He had learned the hard way.  
Ippo shook his head, "No. She had weak arms. I don't mean to say this about her or females in general, but she basically has the same weak upper body strength as a normal girl. She's definitely faster in speed, but not in terms of strength. She has excellent leg strength though which is pretty surprising because she doesn't have large bulky legs usually found in girls or guys with good leg strength. She's much faster in every form than a schoolgirl but her upper body strength is equal to one and her lower body is only about twice that of one,"  
"How can you tell?"  
Ippo smirked, "I've been training for a while. You kinda pick up on these things over the years,"  
"You've got a point," Shinji said. He didn't even know why he even asked it. He himself had been training for a few years and could tell if someone had martial arts training simply by the way they carried themselves when they walked.  
Shinji scratched his head as he realized something.  
"I curious, if Emiko lacks upper body strength, then why are having her doing speed bag which seems to be used to help increase speed? If she's plenty fast enough, why not have her train on punching bags?"  
Ippo smiled, "It seems logical to do that, to strengthen, no pun intended, her weakness. However, I can tell that if she were to strengthen her upper body, her speed will decrease dramatically. Basically, she has to give up one strength to increase on a weakness. It's not a good trade-off. If she did punching bag, she'd be worse off than if she did. She'll gain a slight bit of strength but her speed will decrease and her body won't know how to deal with the change, making it seem even worse,"  
"Is that why you give her different weightlifting exercises than myself?" Shinji asked.  
"Yep," Ippo said, "I have her do those dumbbell curls because she can actually gain a slight bit of strength before her speed is affected. After a few more weeks, she can't do that anymore unless she wants to transition over to being stronger but at the expense of being much slower. I'll asked her again. I had asked her a while back and she said she wanted to retain her speed," Little did Shinji know that Emiko had mentioned that during the same time when she had requested to remain doing jump-rope for warm-up instead of doing lunges.  
"A-are you going to be showing me the speed bag?" Shinji asked.  
Ippo nodded, "Of course, but not right away. We'll get around to it later. In the meanwhile, we'll be sticking to the punching bag,"  
"Okay," he said.  
"Oh, on a side note, I recommend that she begins eating more and more often," Ippo said.  
"Huh? Why do you say that?" Shinji was shocked, "Are you saying she's been starving herself?"  
"No. Nothing like that. I'm positive she eats three meals a day," Ippo chuckled, "Emiko is barely heavy enough to be a Strawweight. That's around a hundred and five pounds. What I mean is that she should up the amount the meals she eat per day. She should eat around four meals a day,"  
"But wouldn't that make her lose weight?" Shinji asked, remembering Ranma mentioning.  
"It does," Ippo said, "But rather than spreading out three meals worth of food out over the course of four meals, she should actually try and eat a fourth meals, while not altering the amount she is already eating. Basically, she should increase the amount of food she takes in,"  
"Okay, I gotcha," Shinji said, "What would you like me to do about it?"  
"I don't know," Ippo said, "A meal on the way home from the gym would be good,"  
"But we eat at dinner at around seven-thirty," Shinji stated.  
"But you go home at around six," Ippo smirked, "Having her eat on the way home, even if it's something small like sandwich or even a cheeseburger or something like that. It actually doesn't matter what she eats, so long as she eats. A lot of girls in this world will be very jealous if they found this out about her, but basically, she should gain weight,"  
"And you want me to tell her?"  
Ippo smirked, "In case you're wondering, you and Emiko are expected to gain weight. I'm good at making people lose weight, not the other way around,"  
"Okay," Shinji said.  
"She should start tonight," Ippo said, "Having her grab a bite to eat while you two head home would be a good idea. Actually, as a matter of fact, you can grab a bite to eat with her on the way home,"  
"But I'm on a strict diet," Shinji answered. He had yet to deviate from such a diet and was quite proud of it.  
"I'm sure you are. I don't doubt it," Ippo nodded, "However, you can eat extra. Don't eat no junk food or anything. Just eat something like an apple or baked potato or a tomato or such. Eating something like that won't mess up your appetite for dinner nor will it mess up your diet,"  
"If you say so," Shinji said, "I can do that. I lounge around after I get home while waiting for dinner anyway so I don't mind us getting home a bit later than six,"  
"Cool," Ippo smiled, "Well, I'm going help some of the others out,"  
Shinji said goodbye and turned his attention back to working on the punching bag. He didn't think much about them stopping to eat with Emiko on the way home. They had never eaten together, just the two of them, but that didn't seem to bother him.  
From the other side of the gym, Ippo smirked as he watched Shinji hitting the punching bag.  
"Well, Ranma, I did as you asked me. Whether or not anything comes from them eating together is entirely up to them,"

"You need to gain weight," Shinji said, simply spouting it. He and Emiko, finished with training at the gym, were both on their way home.  
"What?" Emiko was surprised to hear that. Perhaps very few females had ever heard that before, especially when they didn't have some form of eating disorder.  
"Um, Ippo said that you've been losing weight," Shinji began.  
"I-I'm not starving myself or anything," Emiko said, a bit worried about what Shinji thought.  
Shinji smiled, "Oh, I know that. It's just that your training is making you lose weight and Ippo wants you to gain it back,"  
"Um...okay," Emiko didn't really know what to say. She never had to worry about gaining weight because the katas she did was a good enough workout that kept her slender. She was used to keeping her weight down without much work, not having her weight go down and to a point where she had to gain weight. She never anticipated that her training would lead to that,"  
"Anyway, Ippo suggest that we get something to eat on the way home," Shinji said, "He said that I can eat on the way home, so much as it isn't junk food,"  
"He did?"  
"Yeah," he said, "So, are you interested in us eating on the way home?"  
"T-together?"  
Shinji nodded, "Well, yeah, we do walk home together. If we're going to stop and get something on the way home, I figure we'd get it together. However, if you plan on eating at some place like a fast food joint, then you'll be on your own because I can't eat stuff like that, which kinda sucks but I got used to it. Anyway, we can stop by an get some food on the way home. Dinner isn't until seven-thirty so we don't really hafta worry about us ruining our appetites. Are you interested in us eating on the way home?"  
"S-sure,"

Shinji was enjoying taking Sunday off from training at the gym. He and Emiko had agreed on taking Sunday and Wednesday off. It was an early morning and it looked to be a beautiful day. It was nearing noontime, Shinji having spent the morning training.  
Shinji was walking about town by himself. Since he didn't really have any friends in school, all of them more along the lines of acquaintances than anything else, he found himself alone during days where he could be out hanging with friends.  
The only person from school he could hang out with was Sumi. However, he was scared to call her since he wasn't good at phonecalls. He always sounded nervous on one and he knew it. Some guys had problems making phonecalls in general, especially to girls, and Shinji was one of those guys. Besides, if he hung out with her, it'd be just the two of them and he wouldn't know how to act.  
Shinji walked down the street, enjoying the beautiful morning. He looked about and noticed how many couples there were. It made him feel envious as he saw guys walking about with their girlfriends, enjoying each other's company.  
How come it seems so easy for any guy to get a girlfriend, Shinji thought. Why does it seem to be impossible for him? He really had no idea. The only male role model in his life was Ranma. Ranma was the exact opposite, trying to avoid girls. But then again, Shinji had noticed he had been hanging with Luna quite often, Luna having started to jog with him on a daily basis, their jogs lasting a short amount of time but their jogs daily nonetheless.  
Do girlfriends just happen, he wondered. Do you just ask a girl if she wants to be your girlfriend? When do they become your girlfriend? When you start holding hands? When you kiss? When you say you like each other?  
Shinji sighed. He really had no idea. The guys that he wasn't too shy to approach were Ranma and Ryoga, Ranma wanting girls to more or less leave him alone and Ryoga never being home. The only other guy that Shinji was a bit of friends with was Leon McNichol, an A.D. Police officer that came around the house very infrequently. He was a very cool guy but asking him for help was no use since Leon seemed to be going after Priss, who seem to have no intention of dating him. The only other guy he could ask was Carper but that man was married and he rarely came around the house, only coming by with his wife, Madigan, to drop their daughter, Jun, off to say hi and be with Ranma .  
His only close guy friends were Ranma and Ryoga. He basically had six times more close female friends than male friends. The realization made him blush.  
"Find some male friends," Ranma had told Shinji, "There's too many girls around here. You need guys around to help balance the guy girl ratios,"  
Shinji couldn't help but laugh at having recalled that. Guys probably wished to be in Ranma's shoes. Then again, perhaps it was because they weren't in Ranma's shoes that made them want something like that. "And try and hang out with guys more," Ranma had suggested a while back, "God forbid you start turning in to a girl. That's not fun. Oh wait, you'll still be in a guy body. Nevermind,"  
That had confused Shinji when Ranma had made that odd comment, whatever it meant.  
Shinji looked about some more, still noticing the couples walking about.  
I can always ask Luna or Akane, Shinji thought. I'm sure they'd tell me what's wrong with me and tell me why I can't seem to get a girlfriend. Since Shinji actually viewed both Akane and Luna like the elder sisters he never had, he felt like he could go to them about anything. Although both younger than Misato and the others, Akane and Luna seemed more mature than them. Actually, that wasn't the case. Sylia and Ritsuko were very mature as well, but neither them were around all that often.  
Akane and Luna would be able to give him advice on how to get a girlfriend.  
Shinji laughed aloud. Right, like I'd ever go to Akane or Luna about something so embarrassing as that, Shinji thought. The only person he would ever ask about something like that would be Ranma. Since everything came to an extrovert like him naturally, he would not be able to understand how hard it is for an introvert like Shinji.  
Shinji laughed again. "What's so funny?" came a voice from behind him..  
Shinji started. He quickly pivoted around to see who it was. It only took him a minute to realize that standing before him was Sumi and Meito, her housemate. He didn't recognize Meito and regarded her for a moment.  
He noted that the girl next to Sumi was rather pretty girl and had long blond hair and was a little bit taller than Sumi. She had really nice blue eyes that reminded him of that woman he had met in the bookstore a while back. Where Ranma would make a commented, Shinji was unable to and didn't bother to mention it.  
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Shinji asked Sumi.  
"Who's he?" Meito asked, regarding Shinji. Her first impression was that the boy was that he was rather cute for a pure Japanese. Meito, half-Japanese and half-Swedish, preferred non-Japanese. It was simply a preference. Although he wasn't her type, she notice that the boy did have nice arms, Shinji wearing a short-sleeved button-up shirt at the time. "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce the two of you," Sumi gave a meek laughed. She turned toward Meito, "Meito, this is Shinji," She turned toward Shinji, "Shinji, this is Meito, my housemate,"  
"You're Shinji?" Meito's eyes widened.  
"Um, h-hello," he gave a meek laugh.  
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Meito said.  
"Huh? For what?" he seemed confused.  
"For the tickets, you gave Sumi the tickets, right?"  
"What tickets?" he asked.  
"For Priss' concert a while back," Meito said.  
"Oh yeah, those tickets," Shinji remembered. He remembered Sumi having mentioned that she had her housemate went to the concert and had a great time, "No problem,"  
"We had the greatest time," Meito commented, "It was probably the greatest night of my life. Thank you so much for giving Sumi the tickets,"  
"No problem," he gave a meek smile.  
Sumi said, "Um, so, what are you doing here?"  
Shinji felt a bit embarrassed about telling the truth. I have no good friends from school to hang out with and you were the only one that I would have liked to hang out with but I'm too scared to actually call you.  
Shinji decided it was better to give her a little white lie.  
"Um, I was thinking about going to the bookstore and see if any new books came out," he fibbed.  
Actually, he was coming from there. He had gone there for new boxing magazine but there were no new ones.  
"We're on our way to the amusement park," Meito said, "Wanna join us?"  
Meito smirked. Ever since Sumi broke up with Tou, Meito had noticed her mentioning Shinji's name fairly often in random conversation. His name was generally brought up more often than not. Before she had met him, Meito had decided she was going to try whatever she can to get that boy Sumi constantly mentioned and Sumi together. Now that she met Shinji, she could finally put a face to the name she kept hearing.  
They would make a good couple, Meito thought. Shinji felt sick. He had just gotten off a ride and didn't know how he had allowed himself to get convinced in to coming to the amusement park. He didn't know what the chances were of bumping in to them. Meito had a car now. She was supposed to have driven Sumi and herself to the amusement park, which meant they wouldn't had bumped in to Shinji, not choose to walk there together because it was a nice day.  
It was only around one in the afternoon and he wanted to go home. He had only been there for around two hours but he figured that was two hours more than he cared to be there.  
"You okay?" Sumi asked, noticing Shinji's pale face.  
"N-not really," he felt embarrassed about his weakness, "Just gimme a sec,"  
Shinji paused a moment and took several deep breaths. Both girls watched in amazement as Shinji seemed to magically transform himself in front of them. They knew he looked sick and wasn't cut out to go on roller coaster. However, their impression seem to change when Shinji took a moment to compose himself.  
Much like the way a person needed to pause after having eaten too much too fast, Shinji did the same. As if the food finally had made it through the throat, Shinji turned his attention back toward the two girls.  
"Okay, I'm fine now," he said, his color back on his face. Heck, it looked like he hadn't been nauseous a minute ago.  
"Wow," Meito commented, very impressed, "I've never seen someone, um, make themselves unsick like that,"  
Shinji blushed, "Um, I guess I wasn't sick after all,"  
"Right," both seemed skeptic.  
Shinji carried a giant stuff dog on his back in a piggy-back style. The stuffed dog was about as large as Shinji was tall, its head draping over the top of his head. It was around seven in the evening as Shinji was accompanying Meito and Sumi back to their dorms. They were already on campus and only a short distance away from the dorms where the two girls lived.  
"Thanks for the prize," Sumi said, "I don't know how you land all those balls in the basket like that without missing, but it was great,"  
Shinji blushed slightly, "T-thanks,"  
"So, Shinji, how did you enjoy your day?" Meito asked casually. Naturally outgoing, she had been the one that seemed to be talking the most to Shinji. The more she talked to him, the more she noticed that he was very shy to answer but seemed to open up more and more as he talked more.  
"It was kinda fun," he shrugged, "I didn't like a buncha the bigger rides, but all the smaller ones were pretty fun. I liked the games you played for prizes though," Shinji was surprised he had enjoyed himself. The first couple of hours he didn't enjoy, but as the day passed, he found himself enjoying Meito's and Sumi's company.  
"Well, this is where we live," Meito said, jerking a thumb toward the building dorm behind her.  
"Um, well, I guess I'll get going now," Shinji gave a meek smile.  
"Do you need a ride back?" Meito asked, "I have a car. Sumi and I can drive you back,"  
"Nah, no thanks. Thanks anyway," he smiled as he handed Sumi the stuffed dog. When she took it, she realized just how heavy it is.  
"This thing is heavier than I thought," Sumi commented, struggling to hold it in her hands. Luckily, she found it much easier to lift when Meito quickly reached out and grabbed the lower half and lifted it.  
"Man, this is heavy," Meito commented.  
"You guys sure you got it?" Shinji asked.  
"Yes, thank you," Sumi said, blushing.  
"Well, it was nice meeting you, Meito. Sumi, I'll see you in class tomorrow,"  
"Nice meeting you too, Shinji,"  
"See you in class,"  
Shinji smiled as he entered the house at around seven-thirty. He entered the dining area as everyone was sitting down and getting ready to eat.  
"Ah, look who decides to show up without calling," Akane said with a snort.  
"Leave to kid alone," Ranma came to his defense, "What are you, his mother? He's in college. He don't need to call to constantly letcha know where he is,"  
"We're in college. Why do we hafta call?" Asuka muttered.  
"Unlike Shinji, you're a girl," Ranma commented.  
"What?" Asuka, Luna, Emiko, Lina, and Akane said in unison while Rei proceeded to drink her tea.  
Ranma said, "Girls should be looked after. Guys are different and can look after themselves,"  
"Can I kill him?" Lina asked no one in particular.  
Shinji smiled. Even though he had spent Sunday doing some things that were very much like what a person with a normal life did, he always knew that coming back home, he would quickly realize that he didn't have a normal life.  
He found that rather amusing.

"Can I ask you a question?" Shinji asked Ranma as they circled each other in the dojo. Although Shinji had trained earlier in the day and didn't need to train for the day, he had wanted to spar against Ranma anyway.  
"Ask away?" Ranma asked, dashing in and attacking.  
Shinji blushed. Although he was very embarrassed about asking such a question, he felt least embarrassed asking it to Ranma.  
"H-how do you get a girlfriend?" Shinji asked.  
The question surprised Ranma, allowing Shinji to land a punch square in Ranma's face. Shinji was shocked that he had managed to land such a simple punch. He had never managed to land a punch on Ranma square in the face.  
"I did it! I hit you right in the face!" Shinji pulled his hand away, this shocked and ecstatic look on his face.  
Ranma smirked, "Yes, you did hit me. Way to go,"  
He then cocked and arm back and gave Shinji was weak punch, hitting him right in the face, sending Shinji flying backwards where he crashed in to one of the dojo walls and slumped down to his hands and knees.  
Ranma started laughing loudly, "You're good, but I'm better,"  
Shinji rubbed his face. That punch stung like hell. He didn't want to begin to comprehend how much that would have hurt had he not been protected by the ki Ranma had given him before the start of the match.  
He got back up to his feet. When he noticed Ranma walking over and sitting down by the bench lining the wall he had crashed in to, Shinji realized that the sparring session was already over.  
"What's this about you and a girlfriend?" Ranma smirked, very eager to hear that the young man had to say.  
Shinji sat down by the bench, facing Ranma, "Like I said before, how do you get a girlfriend?"  
Ranma couldn't help but still be surprised even though he was expecting it.  
"What bring up this question?" he asked, smirking.  
This question is probably being brought up because he's viewing Emiko as a potential girlfriend, Ranma thought. It seems like my telling Ippo and asking him to have them get something to eat on the way home "I'm just curious," Shinji said, "C-can you help me?"  
He had a funny feeling that he wouldn't be able to help. If he thought about it, Ranma had never had a girlfriend before. He seemed to be so good that the girls he comes in contact with seems to bypass the girlfriend stage right to the fiancee stage. Ranma was basically categorized as must-have material when Shinji wasn't even categorized as potential-boyfriend material, a world of difference apart.  
"Sure, I can help," Ranma said, "Exactly what seems to be the problem? It seems you want a girlfriend, right?"  
Shinji nodded, "Um, I wouldn't necessarily say I want a girlfriend. I-I'm just curious as to how you exactly go about getting one,"  
Ranma, realizing that this was not a time to be joking around and taking things lightly, especially when he knew that it was taking quite a lot for Shinji to approach him and ask something so embarrassing.  
"You don't need to have a girlfriend," Ranma said, emphasizing the 'need', "However, if you really want to have one, the first thing you should do is be yourself,"  
"B-but I think being myself is what keeps me from having one," Shinji commented, "It's because I'm shy. H-how can I make myself more outgoing?"  
Ranma shook his head, "You can just make yourself outgoing. You're naturally shy so you're more prone to being shy. However, if you want to be more outgoing, you work at being more outgoing,"  
"How?" he asked, "I don't know how to make myself more outgoing. How did you become the way you are?"  
Ranma shrugged, "I think I'm naturally outgoing. Unfortunately, I don't really understand exactly how you feel when you, say, bump in to a pretty girl,"  
"How do you feel?" Shinji asked, "How do you view them, a pretty girl?"  
"I dunno," Ranma said, "I definitely know that I don't view a pretty girl any different than one that isn't pretty. Heck, if I really think about it, I think I talk to a girl no different than I talk to a guy,"  
"I notice that, but you seem to know exactly what to say," Shinji said, "If I'm talking to a girl, I find myself trying to think of what to say. For you, everything comes naturally, being able to talk,"  
"I just say whatever that pops up in to my mind," Ranma said, "I know I should actually watch what I say, but I don't,"  
"But how can you just say it?" Shinji asked, "That's what I don't understand, how you can actually say the words and say whatever pops in to your mind. Can you show me how to be a bit like that? I know I'll never be outgoing or good at talking to girls like you, but I'd like to be a bit more outgoing than I am now,"  
"Well, first off, if I ever bump in to an outgoing very of yourself, I must say, I'll be weirded out since I'm used to knowing you the way you are," Ranma smirked, "Anyway, if you wanna become a bit less shy and more outgoing, then you're going to have to force yourself to do some things,"  
"Like what?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma smiled warmly, "Heh, it seems like I'm going to be training you at yet another thing. Currently, I'm helping you get stronger, faster, use ki, grapple, fight, and escape locks. And now, it seems like I'm going to be training you another thing, girls,"  
Shinji give a meek smile.  
"Don't worry about it," Ranma laughed, "I have no problem. Actually, I rather enjoy it,"  
"Really?"  
"You remind me of how I used to be when I was very young, around your age," Ranma said.  
Shinji smiled. He found that to be a compliment.  
"You're basically much like me except you don't suffer that 'foot-in-mouth' syndrome Akane and the others say I suffer from,"  
Shinji laughed.  
"Anyway, if you wanna become more outgoing, then I guess you start your homework tomorrow," Ranma smiled.  
"What kinda homework?" Shinji gulped.  
"For the next week, you need initiate conversation and say hello to at least one random girl per day,"

Ranma was walking around town on Monday. After having finished his jog, he was looking for something to do. It was close to noontime and it was a beautiful day out.  
"Hm, nice day out," Ranma commented, noticing the clear sky, "Damnit,"  
Ranma glanced over and caught sight three girls walking down the street.  
"Excuse me," Ranma said toward all three girls.  
"Yes?" one of the girls asked as she and the others smiled at Ranma.  
All of them regarded him and liking what she was seeing.  
"Does it look like it's going to get dark out or rain?" he asked, pointing toward the sky above.  
The three girls looked up.  
"No," one of the girls said, "It's supposed to be clear out,"  
"Damnit," Ranma muttered.  
"What seems to be the matter?" the second girl asked curiously.  
"I was hoping it was going to get dark and start raining," Ranma commented, "That way, it's an ominous sign that something really bad is going to happen to this world,"  
"Huh?" all the girls said.  
"Nevermind," Ranma walked off, leaving three girls looked very confused.  
Ranma walked off, wishing something would happen, anything. If something really powerful attacked this world, he would remember to remove his arm braces.  
"Hey, Urd, you hear me?" Ranma called up toward the sky, "I'm bored. Can you have something attack this world?"  
Several pedestrians walking by gave him odd looks. Ranma looked like some crazy person to them. However, it didn't seem to bother him.  
Ranma sighed as he continued on his way. He was so bored. He wanted to do something.  
"Oh, I know, I'll let myself get hit by a truck," Ranma snapped his fingers.  
Ranma ran out in to the middle of the street just as a truck was passing by. He jumped in front of it, a smile on his face.  
Let's see where getting hit by a truck takes me, Ranma thought.  
The truck's tires screeched loudly as it came to a skidding halt, missing hitting Ranma by mere inches. The truck had stopped so close that the folds of his shirt and pants were pressed back ever-so-slightly because of the truck's bumper and front grill.  
"What the hell's wrong with you?" the truck driver scream from his window at Ranma.  
"Jeez," Ranma muttered to himself, walking back off, "It must be some kind of sick joke being played on me. Is it because I want to get hit by a vehicle that I don't get hit?"  
Ranma walked down the street, depressed.  
"There's nothing to do!"

new stuff 9/13

Finals were just around the corner. Shinji's schedule was adjusted accordingly. With two weeks of school remaining, Shinji had found himself studying more often, studying early in the morning while he ate his breakfast and immediately after his evening sparring session with Ranma.  
Ranma, having known that this was an important time for Shinji, had cut back on the sparring session, ending at around nine instead of around ten.  
A couple days passed by uneventfully in such a fashion. Shinji's morning and school day had progressed in the usual manner. Shinji spent the morning studying while having breakfast. On his way to school, Shinji did the homework Ranma had given him, taking that time to actually say hi to a random girl. It usually consisted of him saying 'Good morning', the girl replying back 'Good morning', before he headed on his way. Although it was kind of pathetic and he knew it, he knew he had to start somewhere.  
Shinji's school day passed by uneventfully. Because of the time they spent on Sunday at the amusement park, Shinji felt a lot more comfortable with Sumi. They started cracking jokes between the two of them, something they had never done before then.  
"What do you think the dog should be named?" Sumi said for conversational purpose.  
"I dunno," Shinji shrugged, feeling a bit bad that he didn't really care what the heck the stuffed dog's name was.  
"You won it for me," she said, blushing slightly, "Why don't you name it?"  
"Um, I really dunno what name to give it,"  
"Her," Sumi corrected Shinji, "It's a her,"  
"Um, okay," Shinji said, "I dunno what name to give her,"  
He smirked. If it was a female dog, a name like 'Bitch' might be fitting. Of course, he couldn't bring himself to crack a joke like that. She might find it offensive or ill-humored.  
"How about Princess?" Sumi suggested.  
Shinji nodded, "That sounds like a good name. A bit plain though," He didn't realize he wasn't supposed to say that last line until after he had said it.  
"What, you don't like that name?" she asked.  
"N-no, not that," Shinji said nervously, "Um, er, p-perhaps there was another name. Um, i-it's just a common dog name. If it was a male dog, it'll be like calling it Spike or Spot,"  
"So what do you suggest?" Sumi eyed him critically.  
Shinji's mind started racing as he tried to think of a name. Unfortunately, no new names came to him. Only one particular name kept popping up in his mind.  
I can't suggest that name, he thought. Can I?  
"Um, h-how about, um, I hope you don't get angry...um, since it's a female dog, why not call it 'Bitch'?" Shinji felt like he was sweating bullets from nervousness.  
Sumi became silent for a moment. This worried Shinji. Was she going to slap him for being so vulgar? Was she offended?  
A moment later, she started laughing, "That name's perfect,"  
"Really?" he was shocked.  
And so, the name 'Bitch' was given to the stuffed dog. Shinji had been pleasantly surprised that Sumi had thought to use that name initially but found it a bit one ar. When Shinji suggested it, it made her realize that she wasn't the only one that thought like that. It wasn't that she liked the word. It was because she liked giving things fitting yet unique names. For a couple of days, the school classes passed by without incident.  
After classes, Sumi and Shinji would split up, heading off campus.  
Shinji ordered the 'usual' at the Chinese restaurant before heading back to campus to meet up with Asuka and Rei. Immediately after eating his meal, he would go about studying.  
On the way home, he would meet Emiko waiting for him outside the gym like always. There, Shinji would had back Asuka and Rei their backpacks where they would go their separate ways.  
Once inside the gym, Shinji looked forward to the training ahead of him. Perhaps it was the thought of ending his training working the punching bags that made him more eager to train.  
For the warm-ups, Shinji had a bit of trouble having the jump-rope pass by twice with every hope. On the first day he tried it, he found himself tripping over the jump-rope as often as when he had first started doing jump-rope. After warm-ups, Shinji still hated doing jogging but did them anyway, jogging around the block three times. Three miles was way too much with him, Shinji having to stop once after jogging around the block one and a half times before he would continue on and actually finishing it.  
The clean and jerks and power snatches had remained relatively the same, the only difference being a very slightly increase in weight. When he had done finished doing those exercises, he would move on to his favorite part of his training, working the punching bag.  
Shinji was coming along fine. His jab had slowly increased in speed and power since when he first started. He was also allowed to do straight punches in combination with his jabs. His punches were no where near as fast or powerful as other patrons helping out.  
He had found himself yelled at one day when he noticed one of the patrons doing a hook punch wrong.  
"Um, you're supposed to have your leg a bit wider apart when doing the hook punch," Shinji suggested. Even though he was only supposed to do jabs and punches, it didn't mean he didn't know how to do a proper hook punch.  
"Mind your own business," the man sneered, resuming his incorrect punching of the bag.  
Shinji gave a meek smile and apologized before he resumed working his own punching bag. He should have kept his mouth shut. Not the guy probably thought Shinji was some kind of snot-nosed kid that didn't mind his own business.  
One day, around the end of his training, he was surprised when he looked over and saw Ranma enter the gym. Since the punching bags were located to the immediate right of the entrance, Ranma had spotted him right away.  
"Yo," Ranma said, approaching Shinji.  
"Hey, Ranma, what brings you here?" Shinji asked, stopping what he was doing.  
"I was just stopping by to see what's up," he answered.  
Shinji smirked, "Lettme guess, you just wanna pass some time,"  
He grinned, "Yep. When you have as much free time as me, you find yourself actually brainstorming what the heck to do. Anyway, I just wanted to stop by to see how you were doing and perhaps pass some time chatting with Ippo. Where's Emiko?"  
Shinji jerked a thumb toward the back left side of the gym where Emiko was working the speed bag. She had spotted Ranma and Shinji talking but had continued on with her training.  
"Hm, punching bag, huh, you're moving along really quickly," Ranma commented, "Dunno about Emiko, she should be doing punching bag as well. She has plenty of speed. But then again, if she does that, she'll get stronger but at a huge expense of speed,"  
Shinji was surprised when he heard that, "T-that's exactly what Ippo said,"  
Ranma smiled, "Ippo's a great trainer. He really knows his stuff. I guess it was a good choice to have her doing speed bag then. After some consideration, I would've done that too,"  
He glanced over where he saw a guy doing his hook punches incorrectly.  
"Hey, spread your legs wider apart when you do a hook punch," Ranma basically told the guy.  
"Mind your own business," the man sneered at Ranma.  
"Fine by me," Ranma didn't seem one bit bothered, "The best way to learn is the hard way,"  
Shinji smirked. Perhaps saying whatever was on his mind didn't always work for Ranma.  
Ranma turned his attention back on to Shinji, "Anyway, how much longer before you're done?"  
"I'm basically done," Shinji said, "Emiko and I head home around now,"  
"Cool," he smiled, "I'll leave you be. Where's Ippo?"  
"Right here," Ippo said, approaching the two of them. It was as if he appeared out of nowhere. This had startled Shinji and almost even Ranma.  
"Hey, Ippo," Ranma smiled. "What brings you here? Anything I can help you with?" Ippo smiled.  
"I was just stopping by to check up on Shinji and Emiko," Ranma replied, "To see how they were coming along. They seem to be coming along fine,"  
Ippo nodded. He glanced over and noticed one of his gym patrons were doing the hook punch incorrectly.  
"You're doing your hook punch incorrectly," Ippo suggested, "You're supposed to-"  
"Have my feet spread more wide apart," the man said.  
Ippo nodded, "Yes. If you knew that, then why aren't you doing it?"  
"Um, I dunno," the man said.  
Ranma and Ippo walked off to talk to one another, not wanting their talking to distract anyone.  
When they were gone, Shinji noticed the man spread his feet wider apart as he went about doing hook punches on the punching bag. As he did so, he noticed Shinji watching him.  
He looked at Shinji and smirked, "Sorry I doubted you, kid,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "I-it's all right,"  
During the day that Ranma visited, he had stayed at the gym that night while Emiko and Shinji headed home. On the way home, they stopped at their usual store to get a quick meal, a deli located nearby the bookstore and record store.  
Emiko ordered a sandwich while Shinji got a tomato. After a day or so, the deli staff recognized them. One of them asked if they were boyfriend and girlfriend which had brought a huge blush on their faces.  
"Um, n-no, w-we're not," Shinji had said, blushing.  
"Y-yes, w-what he said," she added, blushing as well.  
"Okay, I was just curious," the man said.  
He couldn't help but smile. The man with the pig-tailed hairstyle that had came in earlier that day had asked him do ask that. It seemed like the comment had gotten both of those two thinking, or at least the young girl thinking.  
The man resumed making Emiko's sandwich.  
Shinji and Emiko had looked at one another afterwards. After a moment, they smiled and laughed slightly.  
"It never really occurred to me," Shinji had said in between laughs.  
"What never occurred to you?" she asked.  
"Well, considering how we're training together and always walking home together, it's only natural that people would assume that," he commented. He didn't blush. He felt totally at ease with Emiko and making a comment like that didn't bother him or make him nervous.  
Perhaps over time, Emiko had slowly becoming more and more of a really close friend, much like how Ranma was. The closer a person was to Shinji, the more at ease he felt talking about anything.  
Emiko blushed, "Um, n-now that I think about it. Y-you have a point,"  
The comment made her wonder if they were a couple. It wasn't as if she had problems with being associated with Shinji as a couple. He was a nice guy. However, exactly when did that happen? At what point in time were they considered a couple instead of friends?  
The order came around as Shinji paid for the food and two bottles of juice. He handed her the wrapped up sandwich of hers and her bottle of juice. She thanked him as she followed him outside where there was a sidewalk bench where they sat as they ate their food.  
"Man, I can't believe it, I'm actually eating a tomato as a meal," Shinji had commented.  
"You seem to have no problem eating it," she said. She hated tomatoes. She only liked it if it was mixed in with other foods. She couldn't fathom the thought of eating a plain tomato.  
Shinji chuckled, "That definitely wasn't the case when I first started eating these. I don't care all that much about tomatoes, but they're a part of my diet. It very hard eating them at first but I'm starting to get used to it. Eating tomatoes is definitely an acquired taste, that's for sure,"  
"I don't like tomatoes," she divulged.  
Shinji nodded, "Me neither. I prefer eating them with other stuff,"  
"M-me too," she said in surprise to find that they had something directly in common. The only else was perhaps their general like of instrumental music.  
"I still find it surprising that I'm eating a plain tomatoes," he said with a shrug.  
"I thought the same thing too," she said.  
"I think I'm getting better at the punching bag," Shinji had commented, changing the subject, not wanting to eat in silence.  
Emiko nodded, "I noticed,"  
"You noticed all the way from the other side of the gym?" Shinji was a bit surprised.  
Emiko blushed. She knew he was getting better because she found herself stealing glances toward him every here and there. As to why, she didn't really know. She found it rather strange. There was this one time he had gone to the water fountain which was by the locker room entrance and Emiko hadn't noticed. When she had looked over and noticed he wasn't there, she felt worried that he had left her there and had gone home without her. It wasn't until she spotted him did a wave of relief wash over her. She couldn't explain why she felt that though.  
"Well, anyway, it seems like I'm getting better," he continued on, not really knowing why Emiko had blushed, "My punches can move the punching bag back slightly, at least a lot more than when I started a few days before,"  
"That's good to hear," she smiled. She found it amusing how even a small improvement seemed to make Shinji happy.  
Shinji glanced over toward the record store and was suddenly reminded of the time of the time they spent there and what had happened.  
"I wonder what happened to the guy I hurt in there," Shinji said, still feeling bad for the man.  
"Well, it's been over a week since that happened," Emiko said, "I'm sure he's able to walk again. He might still be limping, but he should be fine,"  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess. The guy's bad news. Um, I'm kinda worried,"  
"Worried, about what?" she asked. She had noticed that Shinji seemed to have been observing his surroundings more often recently, mostly observing where people were as they passed by and walked the street.  
"He's bad news. He might seek revenge," Shinji said after a pause, "I'm worried he's the type of guy that would sneak up behind me and stab me or something,"  
The bottle of juice in Emiko's hands suddenly broke, its content spilling mostly over on to Emiko, some on Shinji.  
"What the?" he was surprised.  
Emiko looked down at her hand and noticed that it was bleeding.  
Shinji's eyes widened, "Oh man, you're bleeding. What happened?"  
"I-I don't know," she said, really not knowing. She had been holding the bottle one second, and it had broken the very next second, right after Shinji had mentioned about him getting stabbed in the back.  
Shinji quickly observed the situation at hand, taking hold of Emiko's bleeding hand.  
"We better get you home so Luna can heal you," he said.  
"O-okay,"  
Luna had healed Emiko that night, after questioning what had caused it of course. Neither Emiko nor Shinji knew what happened. When Shinji had mentioned that it suddenly broke while they had been talking, when he had mentioned about the part where the guy might seek revenge on him, Luna had smirked.  
Neither Emiko nor Shinji seemed to have known that Emiko's anger toward that unknown man had caused that to happen. It seemed that Emiko's worry had caused that to happen.  
Aside from that incident, most of the nights coming home from the gym was much the same, Shinji and Emiko getting a quick meal to eat, Emiko having a non-  
descript sandwich with juice while Shinji having a plain tomato with juice.  
They seemed to enjoy their time together, especially Shinji.  
It made him feel like he had a friend around his age that he could hang out with outside school. Sumi he hung out with during school, but that was only in between classes which didn't really count since there was nothing much else to do.  
When the two of them would arrive home, Shinji would immediately take his shower. At one point in time, Ranma had commented on why he would wait to take a shower at home instead of at the gym before he left. Shinji failed to tell the truth, that he felt very uncomfortable about taking a shower with other people around. Instead, he had told Ranma that he didn't want Emiko to have to wait for him.  
"Sure," Ranma had smirked, his smile easily giving indication that he knew the real truth.  
All Shinji could do was blush at that time. He didn't even know why he should be embarrassed to tell the truth to Ranma. Ranma was the type of person one could tell anything to. Heck, Ranma knew so many personal things about everyone that if he ever revealed what he knew, they would most likely crawl up and die out of sheer embarrassment.  
After his showers, Shinji usually immediately spent his time studying for upcoming finals rather than lounge around like usual for dinner. He usually retired to his room or went outside to the bench that was located by the front gate to do so in solitude. It depended on whether or not Emiko was currently using his or Ranma's room during that time.  
There was one time when he was studying when Emiko had approached him while it was her time staying in Shinji's room, leaving Shinji to have to study outside on the bench.  
"Um, c-can I sit here?" she asked somewhat nervously.  
"Sure," he said, scooting over, moving his backpack and books over to give her room.  
Emiko, having sparred against Asuka and beating her like usual, had a bit of free time to kill before dinner.  
"How'd your sparring session go?" he asked.  
Emiko blushed slightly, embarrassed, "Well, like usual,"  
"You won, huh?" he smirked.  
She nodded.  
"That's good to hear," he smiled, returning to studying.  
There was a moment of silence as Emiko contemplated what she had wanted to say, whether or not to say it.  
"I-I find myself having trouble beating Asuka," Emiko said, very embarrassed. She couldn't believe what made her say that. Although she was comfortable talking to Shinji, she was very uncomfortable revealing such a weakness of hers to him.  
Shinji stopped what he was reading to look back toward Emiko.  
He smiled warmly, "What seems to be the problem about that?"  
Emiko seemed nervous, "Well, I remember I used to be able to beat her very easily,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Well, Asuka has been training, even after you had left to go back and visit your own world. Perhaps she somehow managed to catch up and get close to where you over that span of time for when you got back,"  
"Y-you think so?" she asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Most likely. Asuka's gotten really good,"  
"How good?" Emiko asked.  
"Much better than the way she used to be," Shinji said. When we first came to this world, she slacked off on training. However, after we came back after all that business with saving Ranma on that future world during when he was merged with Rei, she picking up training again. She's better now that I think she ever used to be,"  
"Oh," Emiko said, "Um, how about when compared to you?"  
"Huh?"  
"Can she beat you?" Emiko asked.  
Shinji blushed, a bit embarrassed, "Um, I can beat her, but not consistently. I haven't sparred against her in a while. However, I still don't think I can probably beat her consistently even now,"  
"I used to have no problem beating her," Emiko said, "But I find myself having problems nowadays,"  
"Did you train while on the other worlds?" Emiko shook her head, "Not that much, at least no where near like I used to,"  
"That could be why," Shinji commented.  
"I-I think so too,"  
There was a moment of awkward silence, Shinji noticing that Emiko was thinking about whether or not she should say what she wanted to say next.  
"T-that's why I started training," Emiko suddenly proclaimed, "I don't want her beating me,"  
Shinji smiled. Emiko had just revealed why she was training in the first place, something Shinji knew all along. The fact that she was opening up meant a lot to him.  
Emiko looked at Shinji, wondering how he would react. "There's nothing wrong with that," Shinji said.  
Emiko didn't know why, but she could feel a sense of relief washing over her. Although it shouldn't had been the case, she had somehow worried about what Shinji would say if she was only training because she wanted to stay better than Asuka, not because she had some interesting in boxing like he seemed to have interest. In a sense, her training there was a mockery of why he was there, boxing.  
Shinji's reply and reaction made her realize that she had been worried all that time about nothing. She had been worried about how he would react to a weakness she had showed him, yet he seemed to show no form of disappointment in finding that out. Actually, in a sense, it seemed like he was rather happy she had opened herself up to him, even if it was just for the first time.  
This is Shinji we're talking about, Emiko thought. Why would he get angry anyway? Strange, even though it really doesn't matter what he thinks, why was I worrying over it, as if I want his approval?  
Emiko started wondering if it really mattered whether or not Shinji knew personal things about her. She had been worried but it seemed like she had nothing to worry about.  
"Um, w-what are you doing?" Emiko said, wanting to change the subject.  
Shinji, happy that she had even taken such a leap of faith and told him something personal like that, figured it was best not to stay on such a subject.  
"I'm studying," he said.  
"For what?"  
"I have finals," he answered. When he noticed the confused look on her face, "They're basically major tests at the end of the school term,"  
"Oh," she felt bad, "A-am I bothering you?"  
Shinji shook his head, "Not at all. I've been studying for quite some time. I'm ready to take it now if need be. I'm pretty I'll do okay on them,"  
"You'll do great," she said confidently. She blushed, wondering what compelled her to say such a thing.  
"Thanks, he said with a smile.  
Dinner went about in usual manner, usually consisting of Ranma saying something incredibly stupid at the dinner table that merited glares from all the females. However, there was time he said something that gave the females the right and obligation to kill him or at least serious hurt him.  
"I have a joke," Ranma said, smiling.  
All the girls had narrowed their eyes at him. They all knew Ranma's jokes, although funny, were usually very offensive. Actually, anything he said tended to be very offensive.  
"Fine, what is it?" Asuka snorted out of curiosity.  
"Why do women have small feet?" he smiled.  
"Why?" everyone asked.  
"So they can stand closer to the stove," he laughed.  
"Die!" all the females save for Rei seemed to shout. Rei seemed unbothered by the joke and continued to eat. Luna, although usually open-minded, couldn't help but be offended. Akane had been the first to hit Ranma, punching him in the face, sending him flying out through the open back porch door where he sailed across the sky where he disappeared beyond the horizon.  
Aside from that incident that time, dinner usually went about with problems. They usually did result in a Ranma versus female battle of words, but they rarely escalated to Ranma actually getting pummeled unless he said something really offensive.  
After dinner, Shinji usually sparred against Ranma. The sparring sessions started off with Ranma showing Shinji a new grapple escape, most of them currently consisting of ways to escape when someone grabbed his wrist.  
"Wouldn't it just be easier to do something else?" Shinji had asked once, "Just breaking the hold leaves you back at square one,"  
"True," Ranma shrugged, "But at least this way, you can still try and avoid a fight instead of having to punch the guy. Being able to break a hold very easily prevents anyone from grabbing you and preventing you from doing something in case there's ever multiple attackers,"  
"But wouldn't punching someone also have the same effect?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma nodded, "Not. Unless the man has inhuman strength, there's no way he can prevent you from certain grapple escapes. However, a guy could continue to keep holding on to you even after you punch him,"  
"Oh,"  
"Once you learn these kinda escapes and learn it really well," Ranma grinned, "I'll show you pressure point attacks," "Really?" Shinji eyes widened.  
Ranma nodded, smiling all the while, "You've got so much to learn. You're just too inexperienced at the moment. All you know now is how to effectively strike and several brutal but basic submission attacks. There's so much more to it. You've yet to learn ki-based offense, ki-based defense, or pressure point attacks. That's just the tip of the iceberg,"  
Shinji was very silent when he heard that. He wondered how good a fighter he would be if he knew such techniques.  
"You're only at a novice level with controlling your ki," Ranma had said, "You can only do stuff like sooth your nerves and stop a nauseous feeling through proper breathing at the moment. There's so much more like being able to sense where someone is without being able to see or hear them,"  
Shinji wondered if he should tell Ranma he had actually managed to sense Sumi that day it was raining when he was meditating to pass the time.  
"Anyway, since I'm not going anywhere," Ranma shrugged, "I'll be glad to show you when you gain more experience," "T-thanks," Shinji said.  
"On a different note," Ranma said, "I'll start sleeping in the living room from now on,"  
"Y-you will? How come?" Shinji was surprised.  
"Emiko will be staying in my room," he replied, "That way, you can spend your time from here on studying in your room after sparring. Whatcha think?"  
"Um, t-thanks," Shinji said. He had actually be thinking about requesting that and had been nervous about it but it seemed like Ranma had made it easy for him.  
Ranma smiled, "No problem,"  
The sparring sessions lasted only around an hour or a bit longer, Ranma wanting Shinji to have more time to study for upcoming finals. When he and Ranma were done sparring, Shinji retired to his room where he would go about studying.  
Funnily enough, when he was about to go to sleep end got in to his bed, Shinji couldn't help but notice Emiko's scent seemed to have lingered in his bed, she having slept there for a while before he got his room back. It smelled a bit like strawberries.  
"M-must be her shampoo," Shinji said, blushing. He didn't seem to mind the smell though. However, it also distracted him from falling greatly, odd images of Emiko as she slept in his bed flashing through his mind. He didn't know why this was happening now though since she had slept in his bed before.  
After an hour or so of twisting and turning, Shinji had come to the realizing why.  
"It's the shampoo," he said. Emiko had never used scented shampoo before, having believed the scented shampoos on this world was considered too feminine for her tastes.  
It was very odd why she was using scented shampoo.  
"How'd you do on the final?" Sumi asked Shinji as they emerged from 'K Cluster' where they had their second to last final for spring semester. It was only eleven in the morning, the two of them only having to worry about one final today.  
A couple of weeks had passed, the days passing by with little or no incident. Actually, it passed by with incident almost every day, but that usually concerned Ranma saying something stupid to anger anyone of the female persuasion.  
Shinji smiled, "Real well. Looks like I'm going to be getting an 'A' in this class,"  
"That's great to hear," Sumi smiled.  
"How about you?" he asked, tending to now ask the same question in return. Although he already knew she was going to get an 'A' as well since she easily had the highest grade going in to the final and was also a very good test-taker. Sumi smiled, "What do you think?"  
Shinji chuckled, "I should've known,"  
"We only have one more final left and that's tomorrow at ten in 'Lecture Hall' room fifteen," Sumi commented, figuring Shinji already knew but just wanted to remind him.  
Shinji nodded, "I know,"  
He asked, "When are you expected to move out of the dorm?" "By the end of next week," she answered, "I'm moving back home for the summer,"  
She had noticed that it seemed easier to keep a conversation with Shinji nowadays, Shinji more likely to ask questions instead of leaving her to do so. She had notice quite a bit of change in him over the past couple of weeks. He had definitely become more outgoing since when she spoke to him, when she had asked if anyone was sitting in the empty seat next to him and him just meekly saying no.  
"Um, you need help moving out?" he asked, figuring it couldn't hurt to ask. He hadn't been by her dorm since they had gone to the amusement park with her housemate.  
Sumi smiled, touched by the gesture, "Thanks, but there's no real need. My mom and dad are here visiting and we're leaving for home the day after I'm done with tomorrow's final. My parents rented a moving truck and have already finished packing everything in to it,"  
"Back to Kyoto?" he asked.  
Sumi nodded, "Yeah,"  
She was surprised Shinji had actually knew where she was from. She only recalled him mentioning that she was from there only once, near the beginning of the semester, before they had started speaking to each other on a regular basis.  
"That's over three hundred miles away," Shinji commented.  
"Yeah," she nodded, "It'll be a straight trip,"  
"Drive safely," he said.  
"Thanks," she smiled warmly, "Um, what about you? What are you going to be doing this summer? Do you have a job?"  
"No, I don't have a job," Shinji shook his head, "I'll probably be teaching,"  
"Teaching what?" she looked at him curiously.  
"Martial arts," he answered, "I'll probably be teaching at Ranma's dojo. He says it's about time I start training people," Akane, Ranma on occasions, taught martial arts at their dojo from the morning to the night. Since Shinji left for school before the first class and came home after the last class, he never really bumped in to anyone while the dojo was in use.  
Sumi smiled, "You must be really good,"  
Shinji blushed, "I-I try to be,"  
"Well, you did beat up Tou real easily," Sumi added, remembering that incident that happened about a month ago, when she and Shinji had been coming out of the movie theatre.  
"I only did it in self-defense," Shinji commented, "Anyway, I doubt I'd be of any good teaching classes. I get nervous even at the thought of seeing around fifty people looking at me as I'm expected to explain a move and its execution,"  
"Well, you've been doing martial arts for, what, around five years?" Sumi asked, "Isn't that quite a bit of martial arts experience? You have a black belt, right?"  
"Um, no," Shinji gave a meek smile, "I don't have a belt color,"  
"Really? I didn't know that," Sumi said, surprised to be finding this out about him after having known him for so long, "So how do you tell how good you are? Isn't there some kind of hierarchy on where your skill level is?"  
Shinji scratched his head, "Um, now that I think about it, there isn't. It's never really occurred to me,"  
Sumi shrugged, "Well, even if you're considered a white belt, you're still a good fighter,"  
"T-thanks," Shinji blushed.  
"Um, would teaching martial arts get in the way of your boxing?" Sumi asked, only having found out about Shinji's boxing training just a week ago. Shinji shook his head, "Not at all,"  
"That's good to hear," she said. She suddenly became a bit nervous. Wanting to change the subject, she asked, "Um, what are you doing tomorrow night?"  
"Friday night?" Shinji said, "Um, I dunno, why?"  
"Well, I'm leaving for home on Saturday," she said, "Since Friday is the last day for finals, everyone on my dorm floor is having a get-together. Um, w-would you like to come?"  
"L-like a party or something?" he asked.  
"Um, yes," she said, "It's tomorrow and starts at nine. Would you like to come?"  
Shinji felt the great sense happiness upon hearing that. He had just been invited out somewhere. This was the first time anyone had ever invited him to a party before.  
"Yes," he said, very eagerly. "Cool," Sumi smiled warmly, glad she asked.  
There was a moment of awkward silence.  
"Um, what do you plan on doing over the summer?" Shinji asked.  
"I'll be interning at my dad's engineering company on the weekdays," Sumi said, "And I'll be working at my mom's restaurant over the weekends,"  
"Wow," Shinji was impressed.  
Sumi nervously said, "Um, if you'd l-like, you're welcome to come visit,"  
Shinji felt at a loss of words. He had no idea what to say.  
"S-sure," he said. He had been curious as to whether or not he will or can see Sumi over the summer. She had just made it easy for him to visit her.  
"Um, h-here's my home number," Sumi said, reaching in to her back pocket and producing a number. It was odd how she seemed to have her home phone number in her back pocket. Perhaps it was because she had written her number on it before hand for convenience reason, planning out in advance that she would be giving it to him.  
"T-thanks," he said, looking at the number. He quickly put the number in his pocket, "Um, l-lemme give you my n-number,"  
He was stammering like he used to be when he was young, fumbling with words. He had never been in a situation like this before, the exchanging of phone numbers, so he had no idea how to go about such a situation.  
Sumi smiled, "Don't worry. Not unless you've changed your number since, I still have it, from when I called you about the tickets,"  
"Oh, yeah, that's right," Shinji said, "N-no. It hasn't changed,"  
"That's good to hear,"

Shinji looked at the number as he walked across campus, on his way to Makunouchi Gym where he was expected to train. Although it was only eleven-  
thirty, he was expected to be at the gym at twelve, the time he told Emiko he'd be there, having given himself plenty of time in case his final took longer than expected for him to complete.  
"I have a girl's number," he smiled happily.  
It was the first time in his life he had ever gotten a girl's number. Although it was a bit late in his life for it to first happen, he didn't care and was very happy about it.  
Several passerbys looked at him oddly. Shinji blushed as he quickly headed off.  
"And not only that, I got invited to a party!" he said happily. Today was a very happy day for him.  
He was looking forward to how it would be. It was tomorrow, starting at nine.  
He stopped dead in his tracks as he suddenly realized the time.  
What about Friday dinner with Ranma and the group? No one had ever cancelled going to the dinner.  
What was he to do?

new stuff 9/14

Shinji punched at the speed bag as he wondered what he would do tomorrow night come the time for Friday dinner. Although it was Thursday and he and Emiko usually took Friday off, they had started alternating between taking Wednesday or Thursday off, depending on whether the week was odd or even. Since it was an odd week, they had taken Wednesday off.  
His punches were slow and awkward, Shinji sometimes missing a punch and having to start all over again. It consisted of him punching a small teardrop-like bag that hung at head level in front of him. He would hit the speed bag which would be sent backwards and upwards where it would slam against the back of the platform from which the speed bag hung, bouncing forward where it would hit the front of the platform before bouncing backwards once again and hitting the back of the platform where it would bounce forward again and be hit on the return bounce.  
Basically, Shinji hit the teardrop-like speed bag and allow it to bounce back and forth twice before hitting it again on the second return bounce. He went about hitting it twice with one fist, the second punch changing its angle of bounce, before switching over to hitting it twice with the other fist, the second punch changing its angle of bounce as well. The way at which he hit it, if one were to look at the way the speed bag were moving back and forth from underneath made it look like an 'X'.  
Shinji's routine had been changed a week ago. He no longer did jump-rope, that abandoned for fifteen minutes of stretching before he would go out jogging around the block four time. He did the stretching and jogging along with Emiko, her routine having changed. Upon completion of the jogging, Shinji would continue to do clean and jerks and power snatches. One day, several days ago, he had questioned about it.  
"Am I going to be doing these exercise all the time?" Shinji had asked Ippo a while back.  
Ippo nodded, "You'll be doing them all the way up until your pro test, just like jogging,"  
Shinji had never questioned him since.  
During the routine change, his weightlifting exercises had been surprisingly deceased in weight by around twenty percent than the usual weight he used. He had questioned why there was a change and realized why when he was sent back out to run four times around the block once again.  
"Now I get it," Shinji had said tiredly to Emiko as they jogged along.  
He no longer dreaded jogging. Although he didn't care all that much about it, he had gotten used to it.  
"Get what?" she asked, noted u bit tired, she always having been used to jogging.  
"The decrease in weight prevents me from being too tired to jog," Shinji said.  
Shinji's and Emiko's training routine matched each other's.  
They did stretching together after first arriving at the gym. They jogged four times around the block together. They did weightlifting together, each other them doing their respective weightlifting exercises. They did jogging together afterwards. When they got back from their second jogging session, their routines differed. Emiko went on to doing jump-rope while Shinji worked the punching bag for fifteen minutes. Shinji's punching bag exercise consisted of him doing jabs, straights, and hook punches, Shinji having graduated to practicing the hook punch. After then, he moved over to finishing up his training doing speed bag, Emiko switching over to train along side him. During the time when Shinji was doing punching bag, Emiko did her jump-rope nearby.  
Shinji was slowly picking up the speed bag. Emiko, already used to it training on from before, was nearing the speed at which Ippo could strike. Whenever she did speed bag, several gym patrons would always stop to gaze in amazement as the as the speed bag looked like a blur because of the speed of which it was bouncing back and forth. Of course, they wouldn't watch long before Ippo would yell at them to resume their own training.  
"You seem to be getting used to the speed bag," Emiko commented. Although not really used to speaking purely for conversational purposes, mostly because of her upbringing, she found it easiest to talk to him despite the trouble.  
"Thanks," he smiled warmly.  
Unfortunately, he was nowhere near experienced with doing speed bag and talking simultaneously as he instantly missed a punch.  
Emiko giggled, "Sorry. I forgot you're still not used to talking and doing it at the same time,"  
"It's fine," he chuckled, "Heh, if you think about it, this is like when I first started to jump-rope,"  
The two of them laughed. Since the two of them knew Shinji would mess up immediately if he tried to reply, neither of them talked. However, Shinji knew that before long, he would get the hang of it much like he had gotten used to jump-rope.  
After the training, Shinji went to the locker room to take a shower, having finally developed the courage to do so. However, since the shower room was a large room with shower heads lining the left and right walls, Shinji used the shower in the far back corner, so that the back wall would be to one side, only one side of him exposed naked to anyone else in the shower room at the time.  
It had felt extremely awkward for Shinji when he first started a week ago, his showers usually lasting only a minute or so since he didn't want to be naked around strangers longer than need be. However, as time passed, he started getting more and more comfortable with being naked in the shower and started taking more and more time, eventually working his way up to his usual time, around seven minutes.  
When Shinji first started would emerge from the locker room, Emiko was right by the locker room entrance, right by the water fountain waiting for him. She had started waiting there for him since when he first started taking showers there.  
From there, they headed home, stopping by the deli for a quick meal.

Shinji and Ranma circled one another in the dojo. It was only around two-  
thirty and the two had wanted to get in a quick sparring session before they headed out a meal. Since Shinji usually got steamed chicken and steamed broccoli when he got out of his last class before finals had started, Ranma had offered to go with him a mid afternoon meal.  
Ranma smirked as he regarded Shinji.  
Shinji had clearly shown improvement over the past two weeks. His punches were much faster and power than when he first started boxing, something that was already a given. Of course, Ranma didn't have anything to worry about when sparring, he being that much better.  
"So, how's the training going?" he asked.  
Shinji smiled, proud of himself, "It's going along fine,"  
"Have you started sparring in the ring yet?" he asked.  
Shinji suddenly became distracted at the thought of stepping in a boxing ring and sparring against Ippo.  
Ranma had seized that opportunity to land a wicked front kick in to Shinji's chest, sending him flying across the dojo where he landed on the floor, immediately hopping back to his feet. This caused Ranma to smile as he said, "Good reaction. I figured you wouldn'tve hopped up so quickly upon landing,"  
"Thanks," Shinji said, beginning to circle Ranma once again, "And no, I haven't started sparring. Ippo said it'd be a few months before I start sparring,"  
"You should enjoy it," Ranma smiled, "And I have a funny feeling that you'd be sparring earlier than expected,"  
"W-what makes you think that?" Shinji asked nervously.  
Ranma said, "Because you're about ready to,"  
"What make you say that? I've only been there for about a month," Shinji commented, "Ippo said it'd be a few months before I get in to the ring,"  
"That was probably how long it would be if you were the same shy Shinji as then," Ranma grinned, "Because you've been doing the homework I've given you, talking to a random girl at least once a day, you've become much more outgoing,"  
"I-I have?" Shinji asked. He didn't notice. To him, he felt no different than when he first started talking to a random girl not too long ago.  
Ranma nodded, "You may not notice it, but I notice it and I'm sure Ippo noticed it. A month ago, you were very shy. Now, you're still shy, but not as shy as you used to be,"  
"Thanks, I think," Shinji said.  
"What are your thoughts of sparring?" Ranma asked.  
"Um, I-I'll do it if I have to," Shinji said after brief pause. He wondered how he would do in a sparring match against Ippo. The thought of even getting jabbed by that man, even while in protective head gear, made Shinji cringe.  
Ranma smiled, "You see? Your answer now is much different than how it used to be. Now, although nervous about it, you're willing to do it if you have to. When I last asked you about it, you were dead scared about getting in to the ring,"  
Shinji paused. Ranma was right. He remembered being dead scared about getting in to the ring. Now, he was a bit scared, but his heart wasn't racing anymore like it used to be even at the mere thought of sparring in the ring.  
"It'll only be a week or two before you start sparring in the ring," Ranma commented, "You're almost up to the point where you become self-sufficient,"  
"Huh? What do you mean?" Shinji asked, confused. "Ippo has basically taught you all the basics to training," Ranma answered, "He's shown you all the exercises you can do concerning using gym equipment. It's only a matter of time before you get used to all the exercises he's taught you. From there, the only new stuff you can learn requires actually having to be in the ring, whether it be sparring or punching hit mitts,"  
Shinji became silent. Now that he thought about it, he was basically doing what any other gym patron was doing. The only thing that was different was the weightlifting exercises. Since there were no weightlifting exercises better than what he was currently doing, it was no use to use any other exercises.  
Ranma grinned, "Guess what?"  
"What?" Shinji asked curiously.  
"Did you know that you wear a weight vest?" Ranma reminded him.  
Shinji stopped what he was doing. After a moment, it dawned on him that he was.  
"Oh my god! I am! I totally forgot about it!" Shinji's eyes was wide. Although he took it off whenever he took a shower, he had grown so accustomed to taking it off and putting it on for when he shower that stopped thinking about it long ago. He didn't know when he forgot about the vest, but he knew he definitely had forgotten about it until Ranma had just reminded him.  
Ranma laughed, "You see? I told you you'd get used to it,"  
"Oh my god! I can't believe it!" Shinji said, "You're right! I really did get used to it!"  
Ranma continued to grin, "Guess what else?" "What?" he asked.  
"How much do you think the vest weighs?" Ranma asked.  
"A hundred pounds, why?"  
Ranma shook his head, "No. The vest was a hundred pounds when you first put it on. I've been secretly adding weights to it over time,"  
Shinji's eyes widened, "W-what? Y-you have? When?"  
"When you take a shower," Ranma said, "I sneak in and add weights. I've been adding weights from the very next day after you had put the vest on,"  
Shinji was deathly quiet, stunned in to a state of speechlessness.  
"Y'see? The human body is really adaptive," Ranma said, "Over time, like I had said, you're going to get used to it. And like I said, you did,"  
"Can you tell me much weight has been added?" Shinji asked, dying of curiosity. If was carrying more and more weight on his vest with every passing day, and was slowly getting stronger doing his weightlifting exercises, then that meant his body must be getting stronger at an alarming rate.  
"Since you're asking me that, then that means you actually stuck to what I said, to not weigh yourself until the time comes," Ranma continued to grin as he shook his head, "And, no, you're not going to find out until the day of your pro test,"  
"Why not?" Shinji asked. "Much like how great it was when you found it that you were reminded that you were wearing a vest, you'll be in for a huge shock when you find out just how much you're carrying on the day of your pro test," Ranma said.  
"Damn," Shinji sighed, "I would really like to know. However, I guess I'll hafta wait and see,"  
"Man, your discipline is amazing," Ranma had to admit, very impressed, "Me, I'd probably run straight for the scale to find out how much the vest weighs,"  
Shinji give a meek smile, "What, you think I'm not thinking that now?"  
Ranma laughed, "If you're really that curious, then go right ahead. However, if you weigh the vest now, you won't be as pleasantly surprised as when you find out then,"  
Shinji smiled, "I guess I'll wait until then,"  
"Because you'll be sparring in the ring soon, the weights on the vest will be shifted around toward the back," Ranma said, "This allows you to get hurt when you get punched in the stomach and get hurt,"  
"W-why would you want that to happen?" Shinji asked.  
"Because, you're basically wearing armor as you go in to the ring," Ranma replied, "We can't have that. Besides, if your opponent punches you in the stomach and finds himself punching iron, people will get suspicious. To date, unless you told people about it that I don't know about, only Luna had found out,"  
"When did she find out?" he asked, "Did you or Akane tell her?"  
"Neither of us told her," Ranma said, "She found it out the very night she came back to this world. She told me when she greeted you and hugged you, she felt the vest. She said nothing about it thought.  
"Wow, and here I thought I was fooling everyone," Shinji said. After a moment, he laughed, "Heck, if I think about it, I even fooled myself because after a while, even I didn't realize I was wearing a vest,"  
"You can't get anything past Luna," Ranma commented, "She's very observant. Not that she does, because we had an agreement, but she can even read your mind and know exactly what you're thinking,"  
"Much like how you can by looking deep in to a person's eyes?" Ranma nodded, "Yep. Of course, I don't do that. It's very invasive. I wouldn't want someone doing it to me so I don't do it to others. Of course, I could choose to read your mind if I wanted to and no one can do anything about it, but I simply choose not to,"  
"I guess that's good to hear," Shinji commented, "It'd suck living in a house where you something so private as your thoughts can't be kept secret,"  
Ranma shrugged, "I know. That's why I don't do it,"  
"Changing the subject, I have a question," Shinji began.  
"Shoot,"  
"I got invited to a party that starts tomorrow at nine," Shinji said.  
"But tomorrow is Friday's dinner," Ranma commented, "We never miss it,"  
"I know," Shinji said, a bit embarrassed, "Um, it's the first time I've ever been invited to a party before. What do you think I should do?"  
Ranma said, "Hm, considering you said Friday is the last day for finals for anyone with finals, provided they haven't finished them before then, I assume this is for some kinda after finals party? To celebrate the end of the semester?" Shinji nodded, impressed by Ranma's deduction.  
"Well, that's no problem," Ranma shrugged, "I'm sure you're aware that parties are pretty long. It's actually better if you show up later,"  
"You think so?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah. If it starts at around nine, you shouldn't show up until around eleven. Usually, parties don't start picking up until late. Besides, it's a college-based party on a Friday night. The party would probably last until four in the morning or so,"  
"I didn't know that," Shinji commented.  
Ranma smile. He didn't realize Shinji was so ignorant about college life. Then again, he had never seen Shinji going out on Friday or Saturday nights, not unless it was to hang out with him and the gang.  
Shinji lacked a social life. This lack of one had left him unaware of exactly how to enjoy one if he had one.  
Poor Shinji.  
The next day, Friday, came around. Shinji emerged from 'Lecture Hall' at around eleven-thirty, glad to be done with the final. It had been a long hour and a half of test-taking.  
"How'd you do?" Sumi asked as they saw each other outside, where a bunch of other students, finished with their final, were lingering around talking.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "I don't think I'll be getting an 'A' for Physics it seems,"  
Sumi was very surprised, "What? B-but you said you needed less than an eighty four to get a 'B' in the class,"  
"I know," Shinji sighed, "I think I got less than an eighty four. I kinda blanked out on that last two parts of the second question,"  
Sumi felt bad for Shinji. She truly did. Knowing she was going to get a perfect grade, five A's, for the semester, she would have liked it if Shinji got it too. "It's okay," she said in a reassuring voice, "Engineering Science is a very hard major and very few people get perfect scores,"  
"How did you do?" Shinji smirked.  
Sumi gave a meek laugh, a bit embarrassed that she was going to get a perfect score.  
"No need to be embarrassed," Shinji smiled, "You deserved it. I guess I should've cut back on my training and studied some more. It's kinda my fault anyway. Since I've been training hard even during 'finals week', I probably drained myself physically which affected me mentally,"  
"Um, better luck next time," Sumi didn't really know what to say to something like that. How does one comfort someone else after they did badly on a test anyway?  
"Don't worry about it," Shinji said, "I'm just glad finals are finally done and over with,"  
Sumi nodded emphatically, "I definitely agree,"  
"Oh, before I forget, I'm gonna be showing up at the party a bit late," Shinji said.  
"Late? How come?"  
"I forgot I had plans today at the same time," Shinji answered, "I go to dinner with some close friends. We've been doing that for years. It's kind of a tradition thing,"  
"Oh, well, have fun," Sumi said, "I just hope you don't show up too late,"  
"Not at all," Shinji said, "I'll probably show up around ten-thirty or so, perhaps even earlier,"  
"Oh, that's no problem," Sumi said, "I thought you meant late as in around one in the morning or something. The party'll probably start dying around two in the morning,"  
"How long is the party going to be?" Shinji asked, "What kind of party is it anyway? I forgot to ask,"  
"It's a building party," Sumi answered, "Everyone in the dorm building will be there. I don't know if you drink or not, but I think there'll be alcohol there too,"  
"No, I don't drink," Shinji answered, "What, do you?"  
He didn't know what to think about it. He knew that all college parties had underage drinking. However, he didn't like the thought of people purposely engaging in something illegal. "I don't drink," Sumi said, "I don't like the taste of beer. It's disgusting. I tried it once because of peer pressure a while back and it made me sick. I'm never drinking it again,"  
"Um, I don't drink because, um, of my diet," Shinji said, "I can't take in stuff like alcohol,"  
Sumi knew that Shinji always ate right. Having alcohol enter the system could be detrimental and counter-productive to all the training he had been doing. "Anyway, you know where the party'll be," Sumi smiled warmly, "I hope to see you there,"  
"Okay,"

The rest of the afternoon and evening went by uneventfully. After Shinji and Sumi had said their farewells and departed, Shinji had gone to Makunouchi Gym where he had to wait until twelve-thirty for Emiko to arrive, Shinji having told her then in case finals would had lasted the full two hours and he needed time to get there.  
They trained in the usual fashion, indulging in light conversation. During the time, however, when Shinji was working the punching bag and Emiko was doing jump-rope nearby, Ippo approached Shinji.  
"You've gotten a lot better over the past two weeks," Ippo commented, "So much so that I would like to bump you up about a month and a half on getting in to the ring,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile. He knew that this was expected, Ranma having mentioned it, but he had expected it to be the very next day after their talk. It was rather eerier, as if Ranma's and Ippo's observation of Shinji's progress was perfectly in synch. It was as if Ranma would do the exactly same thing Ippo was doing had Ranma been teaching in the gym instead of Ippo.  
"Um, w-when?" Shinji asked.  
"In about two weeks," Ippo said, "It's just that you've changed and became more confident these past two weeks that it seems like you're not quite as nervous at the thought of getting in to the ring,"  
"Oh, I'm nervous about it, don't get me wrong," Shinji stated.  
Ippo smiled, "I know. But it seems like you're less shy about something like this. That's why I'd like to start showing you some advanced stuff,"  
Ippo notices the exact things about me that Ranma does, Shinji thought. Perhaps the training I've been doing talking to a random girl, even if it's saying hi, every day is really starting to pay off.  
"Okay," Shinji said, feeling a sense of dread and excitement about stepping in the ring.  
Around two weeks from now, he would be learning advanced techniques.  
Advanced?  
So all that stuff he had been learning was just basic?

"Shinji lost his virginity," Ranma said, smirking. He and everyone were gathered around a dinner table in a restaurant for their usual Friday dinner. They had been just served their meals and had shortly begun eating when he said that.  
Everyone at the dinner table nearly choked on their food.  
"What?" they all said, even Rei and Shinji.  
Ranma laughed.  
"Not like that," Ranma said after a moment, "You're all a bunch perverts. Anyway, I was referring to Shinji being invited out to a party. This is his first,"  
"Awww," all the adult females said.  
Shinji blushed a deep shade of red.  
He didn't like being the center of attention.  
Shinji paced back and forth, feeling very nervous.  
He was only around a hundred feet away from the dorm building. As he got closer, he noticed that there were around two hundred people gathered about around the side of the building, where there was a huge playing field where people usually hung around and played Frisbee or played a game of catch with some kind of ball.  
There was a long row of tables that lined the side of the building where he could see a some remaining food placed about. Most of them were gone. There were over thirty empty pizza boxes neatly placed by one end of the table, all the them snatched within the first half-hour since the pizza delivery guy arrived in his car with a backseat full of pizza boxes.  
It didn't bother Shinji though since he had already eaten. He hadn't even been aware that there were going to be food.  
In the middle of the playing field, he noticed a four giant pair of speakers, each one with its back toward the others to form a four way speaker system, people gathered around it, some even dancing. He didn't recognize the music but didn't feel all that doubtful that it was probably the current most popular song or close to it.  
"C-calm yourself, Shinji," he told himself, feeling the urge to head back home.  
He had never been in a social atmosphere such as a party and it worried him. Everyone around the dinner table had offered him advice. Although a bit more outgoing, Shinji was still fairly shy. And because of that personality, their first suggestion had been to find someone he recognized and mingle with them.  
He continued to pace for a bit, taking deep breaths to calm his nerves. After a good five minutes of trying to calm himself, he realized that it was no use. He took several deep breaths before he finally forced himself to walk in the direction of the party. As he got closer, he was able to make out some of the people. None of them looked familiar and this worried him.  
When he saw Sumi emerging from the group of people, having spotting him during his approach, a massive wave of relief washed over him.  
Sumi looked different that night. Her hair was done up in to a bun which gave her a sophisticated look. She was also wearing earrings and lipstick, two things he had never seen her wear before. All in all, she was dressed-up and looked not only pretty, but beautiful.  
Shinji remembered some of the things Ranma had mentioned a while back, when had asked him about how one went about getting a girl friend. Ranma had mentioned about how girls seemed to like compliments. Shinji noticed that she was very pretty. However, he was unabrnino say the words, too shy. "Um, er," was all he managed to say, thinking to himself that he was sounding like a babbling idiot before he decided it was best to just keep his mouth closed.  
"I'm glad you can make it," Sumi said, feeling a bit disappointed that Shinji didn't comment her on her new look. She was sure this was the first time Shinji had seen her dressed-up like that.  
Shinji smiled, "I-I'm glad to be here,"  
He felt very out of place. While there, he noticed that there were only college students about or at least people around his age, some perhaps a bit older. Being uncomfortable in such a setting made him realize that he was more used to being in the company of adults.  
Sumi, feeling giddy, grabbed Shinji's hand in hers, "C'mon, follow me. I'll introduce you to some of my friends,"  
"O-okay," he said, blushing as he staggered to keep up as they navigated through the crowd of people gathered about, toward the outer most table of food on the side of the building.  
As Sumi held his hands, Shinji couldn't help but notice how soft her hands were. It felt very different from his own callused hands, hardened from his training in martial arts.  
Shinji almost bumped in to Sumi's back when she suddenly stopped.  
His gaze came to rest on a group of two girls and one guy. One of the girls he recognized as Sumi's housemate, Meito.  
"Shinji!" Meito said happily, "Long time no see,"  
"G'evening," he said nervously, bowing.  
"What the heck you bowing for?" Meito laughed, happy simply being around people, "This ain't some uppity aristocratic shindig. It's a party. A smile and a head nod is what works around here,"  
I haven't been here one minute and I already made mistake number one, he thought to himself. "Oh, I-I'll remember that," he gave a meek smile.  
"Since you and Meito know each other already, there's no need introducing the two of you," Sumi smirked. She then gestured toward to the guy and the girl behind Meito, "That's Alison and that's Sen. They're all up here visiting me. They got up here this morning. It was one heck of a surprise. We all know each other from kindergarten,"  
"Nice to meetcha," Shinji bowed. When he realized what he had done, he gave a meek laugh. The smirk on Meito's lips indicated that he had a lot to learn about parties.  
Sumi turned toward her friends, "Guys, this is Shinji," "The same Shinji to knows Priss?" the girl named Alison asked.  
"Yes," Sumi said.  
"Oh man, you're so lucky," Alison said, "She's one of my favorite singers. It must be so cool to know someone like her,"  
"Um, cool? I dunno about that," Shinji smiled slightly, "I simply see her as a friend,"  
"Damn, if I knew someone like that, I'd steal her panties and sniff them as I masturbate," Sen said which prompted blushes from everyone but him.  
"Eew!" Alison, Sumi, and Meito said in unison.  
"Leave it to the pervert, Sen, say something like that," Alison muttered, sighing.  
Shinji laughed. A moment later, everyone else started laughing, even Sen himself.  
When they all stopped laughing, Shinji had a bit of a happy smile on his face.  
He had found himself glad he hadn't turned back and headed home.

"Um, I b-better head home," Shinji looked at his watch, pretending it was getting late. "What? But it's only midnight," Sumi commented, "'Downtown' is starting to pick up around now,"  
The field was now starting to become sparse, only around fifty people still lingering about including them. Everyone had split up and had headed 'downtown' as the students called it, referring to the line of dance clubs and bars that lined where centered around a certain area of MegaTokyo. It was an area where around seventy five percent of Tokyo University student congregated to on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Since they were underage and wouldn't be able to get in to a bar, not that Shinji would want to go to one in the first place, that left the dance clubs as their only option.  
"Um, I'm not cut out for some place like that," Shinji commented. He wasn't really even cut out to come to this party but had somehow managed to find a small pocket of people to talk to among the sea of strangers. However, he knew going 'downtown' and to one of the dance clubs was definitely not for him. He didn't even need to go to one of those dance clubs even once to know so.  
"It's fun," Sumi said. She liked dancing. She used to go with Tou back then. Since she was no longer with him, she found it much more fun going with friends. She usually went there with Meito and at least three other friends.  
Shinji shook his head, "No thanks. It's not for me,"  
He noticed that Sumi, Meito, and Alison were all eager to go. He and Sen seemed reluctant. It made him wonder what it was with females and dancing. It was as if all girls seemed to like dancing. He couldn't understand why.  
"Have you ever gone to a dance club before?" she asked.  
"No," he answered.  
"So how do you know if you're going to like it or not?"

Shinji felt extremely nervous as he sat in Meito's car as they drop down the parkway toward 'Downtown'. Once again, he had no idea how he had managed to allow himself to be convinced in to going along.  
Going along was basically his twenty-forth mistake of the night.  
Perhaps it was because on any other day, he would have not caved in, but on this day, the last day of the school year, he felt that he might not have a chance until next year, and who knew if there would be a chance then.  
'Seize the moment', Shinji thought to himself, recalling the bastardized Roman translation to 'Carpe Diem'. Although the real translation was 'seize the carpe', which represented living life to its fullest, the bastardized translation was very much similar.  
I used to pilot EVAs, he thought. I've fought Angels! I've looked God in the face! I've helped save worlds! If I can do that, then I'm sure I can handle something like going 'Downtown' with Sumi and her friends. I want to go home.  
Shinji felt chilly as he stood on line to be let in to the dance club called 'Empire MegaTokyo', the most popular dance club in the immediate area. It had a live rock-band that played on the first floor and a DJ that spun the most amazing dance music ranging from house to trance to techno downstairs in the basement.  
Shinji looked at his watch. It read '12:21'. Okay, I can do this, he thought. This place closes at three. I'll only be in the for around an hour and a half. That's not too bad. I had no problem talking to Sumi, Meito, Alison, and Sen for longer than that back at the party. This should be no problem.  
There was a huge line behind him and a huge line in front of him. This made him glad. It would take longer for him to get inside. Therefore, he'd only have to be physically in the dance club for a shorter amount of time.  
"This is a really great place," Meito said, "You'll love it. You just need a few drinks in you to loosen up and you'll start having a great time,"  
"Um, I don't drink," Shinji said, "And I'm underage,"  
Meito smirked, "Don't worry about that. I know the bartender,"  
Shinji didn't know what to say. He wanted to tell her firmly that he wasn't going to drink but he found it hard to say the words. He was never good with being firm.  
"W-what about you? Are you drinking?" Shinji asked Sumi, not knowing how to view her. He had never seen this side of her. She seemed much like a different person.  
Sumi shook her head.  
"Even though Meito drove here, I'm designated driver so, no, I won't be drinking," Sumi answered, "That's why she knows the bartender, because they recognized her because she comes here every week,"  
"Um, what about you?" he asked, wondering how Sumi spent her Friday and Saturday nights. It was most likely doing something better than him, usually just hanging around, either watching television, doing homework early, or reading a book.  
"I come here about once every other week," she replied, "I usually like staying home every here and there, but sometimes I like to go out and socialize. How about you?"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, embarrassed about himself.  
"Um, I sometimes hang out with friends, b-but not that often," he said. He wasn't really lying. He remembered the times when Ranma had wanted to get a snack but didn't want to eat home and Shinji went with him to get food. He tended to do that around once or twice a month.  
"So what do you do during the Friday and Saturday nights when you're home?" she asked.  
"Um, w-watch some television or read a book," Shinji said, feeling very very embarrassed now. He was in college and was supposed to be going out whenever he could. Actually, he probably would do that if he had people whom with to go out.  
Sumi smiled, "I do that too. Sometimes, I would go out and rent a movie,"  
"Oh yeah, that too," Shinji forgot to mention, "I do that too,"  
"Um, m-maybe we could rent a movie one day," she said, testing the waters.  
"Um, o-okay," Shinji said the first thing that came in to his mind.  
Sumi smiled, feeling a little bit warmer for some reason.  
"Didn't you say your parents were in town?" Shinji asked, remembering the conversation they had the other day. He remembered that he didn't see any parents, or adults for that matter, at the party.  
Sumi nodded, "Yeah, they are, but they're staying at a hotel,"  
"Oh," Shinji felt stupid.  
"Ah, the line's moving again," Sumi said.  
Shinji noticed Sumi and her friends taking our their wallet and their license as they approached the entrance.  
Shinji simply emulated what he saw them doing.  
Once there, they handed their licenses to the very large menacing-looking man with a goatee and a magic marker in his hand standing by the front door as they passed by. That guy must be a bouncer, Shinji thought.  
The man took each of their license before he handed it back, taking car to put an 'X' on the back of the hands of Sumi and all of her friends. "What's with the 'X'?" Shinji asked as he put his license back in to his wallet and the wallet back in to his back pocket.  
"It indicates that we're underage, so the bartenders don't sell us any drinks if we trying to buy any," Sumi answered, speaking a bit loudly since the sound of music inside was pretty loud.  
Shinji noticed there was another line that lead to another door as they got in through the front one and finding themselves in a small hallway. Rather than there being a burly guy like at the front door, there was a pretty woman by this door. She was sitting by a cash register, taking money from people as they passed by and entered.  
"What's with the girl and the cash register?" he asked, noticing that everyone seemed to be giving her a thousand yen before going through the door.  
"So you can pay before going in," Sumi answered.  
"Pay?" Shinji was surprised.  
Mistake number twenty five, Shinji thought. You should have known that it wouldn't be free to get in to a dance club.  
Sumi blushed, "Oh my god! I'm sorry. I forgot to mention it to you. Don't worry that, I'll pay for you. It's all my fault for not having reminded you,"  
"N-no. It's fine," Shinji said, taking out a thousand yen from his pocket. He looked in an noticed that he had a decent amount of money, "Um, here, lettme pay for you,"  
"P-pay for me?" Sumi was surprised at the courteous gesture, "Y-you don't need to. I have enough money,"  
"It's fine," Shinji said, "Um, I was brought up this way,"  
Sure, he lied. He wasn't brought up that way. Ranma had basically trained him to be like that. However, he knew he shouldn't say that he was 'trained' to do that because it would seem a big odd.  
Sumi blushed slightly, the flush in her cheeks hidden because of the darkness of the hallway.  
"I don't mind," Shinji added.  
"Um, o-okay," she said.  
Shinji pulled out another thousand yen.  
"I owe you," Sumi said, smiling warmly, "When you come and visit over the summer, I'll be sure to get you whatever you want at my mom's restaurant,"  
"Um, okay," he gave a meek smile. From the sound of things, it seemed like he was now obligated to go to Kyoto to visit Sumi.  
Shinji paid for Sumi and himself and entered.  
The first word to describe the dance club was 'loud', followed by 'dark', followed by 'loud' again.  
Shinji found himself barely able to think because the music emanating from somewhere within the club was so loud. He noticed that the music being played was a pop song he remembered hearing earlier with at the party.  
The club was crowded, many people standing about talking to one another, speaking loudly to hear each other over the music.  
The first floor was basically a huge room with a giant rectangular bar to the immediate right of the entrance. It spanned half the distance of the right wall and was manned by six bartenders, the front of the entire bar completely occupied by people waiting to by their overpriced alcoholic drinks.  
Shinji notices that the back entire back of the room had a giant dance floor where many people were dancing around under the glow and flickering colored lights that were dancing about the entire room. To the left, by the middle of the room was live band on a dais, plying music he recognized loudly.  
"Wow, is that the real band that made that song?" Shinji asked loudly.  
Sumi laughed, "No, silly. They're really good and play famous songs. That's not the real band that made the song. They just play so well that it sounds like it,"  
"Oh," Shinji said.  
Mistake number twenty-six, Shinji thought. How many more mistakes are you going to make before you finally leave?  
He noticed Meito turn a left and head through a door, the group following behind.  
Heading through the door, he found himself heading down a pair of crowded stairs, people coming up as they were going down.  
Once downstairs, Shinji noticed that there was another dance floor. Emerging from the stairs, he noticed the was a tiny bar manned by three bartenders to his immediate front and left, surrounded by people wanting to buy overpriced drinks, much like upstairs. To the right of the bar was a giant pit that was the dance floor. Surrounding that pit was a small fence that had a small opening on one end where people would have to go through and step down the few steps down the stairs before they would be on the dance floor. The small fence was there simply to prevent people from accidentally falling in to the declined pit. One side of the entire room had mirrors lining the wall, making the giant area seem even larger. To the far front right of the room was an other bar, manned by one bartender. By the far front back right was a DJ working and spinning music. Near the DJ booth was a door that said 'exit' on it.  
Shinji couldn't help but feel that the downstairs area was a whole lot better than the upstairs. It made sense because the upstairs was more for mingling than dancing while the downstairs was more dancing instead of mingling.  
Dancing!  
Shinji's eyes widened. He didn't know how to dance. There was no way he was going to make a fool out of himself and dance.  
"What drinks do you want?" Meito asked Shinji, needing to yell in to his room.  
"Um, no thanks," he replied. He did notice that it seemed a bit hot in there. Although there was ventilation, the fact that there were so many people in there was reason enough that it was be a bit hot and muggy in there.  
"Don't worry. I know the bartender. We don't hafta pay. It's my treat," Meito said.  
Shinji shook his head, "N-no thanks,"  
"Don't worry, I'll get you something good," Meito said before walking off and disappearing in to the crowd gathered around the bar in front of them.  
Shinji sighed. He didn't want to drink. "I don't want to drink," Shinji told Sumi, "How come she's still getting me a drink?"  
Sumi gave a meek smile, "I think it's because you seem a bit tensed up. A drink can loosen you up,"  
Shinji said nothing. Of course he was tensed up. He was in a dance csmir He had never been to a dance club before. The loud music, how dark it was in there, the colored lights dancing about, the sea of people gathered all about, the massive dance floor full of people dancing, they were all very intimidating and unknown to him.  
Shinji had a relatively sheltered social life and it was starting to show.  
Meito came back, two drinks in her hand, both of them bottled water.  
She handed one each to Sumi and Shinji. "Here," Meito smiled, "I'm sure you don't mind drinking this,"  
Figuring that Shinji would drink on his own right, she felt there was no need to goad him in to drinking. Although he didn't know what he was missing, there was nothing she could do to persuade him to drink. Some people were simply like that. They tended to get the 'party poopers' of the group and Shinji was one of them.  
"Um, t-thanks," Shinji said, feeling very relieved. "It's hot in here and I recommend at least drinking water," Meito said, giving him a wink. Although she was sober, it looked like she was slightly buzzed simply from the gregarious atmosphere, "I'm sure you don't mind drinking this, right?"  
"R-right," he responded.  
Meito turned back around and disappeared back in to the sear of people.  
"I thought she was going to get me something alcoholic," Shinji commented, glad that it was bottled water.  
Sumi smiled, "I figured too. Since you don't want to drink, alcoholic stuff that is, I would have told her that you didn't want it and probably gave it to Sen. That guy can really put them away and a few extra drinks don't effect him. Speaking of which, where the heck is Sen and Alison?"  
Shinji was surprised he didn't notice them head off. He glanced around for a bit and saw Sen and Alison on the dance floor, grinding their hips in to one another, their bodies close together as they swayed to the dance music being played.  
"The two of them always dance together whenever they come visit," Sumi commented, already knowing what Shinji wasshynng to ask, "And, no, they're not a couple. They're just friends,"  
"Friends, huh?" Shinji wondered. Meito approached them again, carrying in her hands three opened beer bottles.  
She handed one to Sumi, "Here, hold this for him. Where's Sen and Alison?"  
"They're already on the dance floor," Sumi jerked a thumb over her shoulder.  
"Damn, they started without me," she said in annoyance, "C'mon, let's go meet them,"  
Shinji and Sumi followed. Since there was a small fence surrounding the pit, they stopped there to get Sen's and Alison's attention. When they realized they were being called, they got off the dance floor and approached the three of them.  
"Here," Meito said, handing Alison a beer bottle.  
Sumi did the same, handing the beer bottle she was holding to Sen.  
"Thanks," the two of them said.  
Sen started drinking, drinking half the bottle in a single swig. Meito and Alison took a drink too, drinking no where near as much as Sen. Shinji took a drink of his bottled water when he noticed Sumi drink as well.  
"Ah, that hit the spot," Sen said.  
"Definitely," Meito and Alison agreed.  
"All right, let's go dance," Sen said with a big grin.  
Meito turned around toward Sumi and Shinji.  
"Aren't you coming?" she asked. "N-no no no. I-I'm fine," Shinji became extremely nervous, "I-I'll be f-fine right here,"  
"You sure?" she asked, already knowing his answer. Some guys hated the thought of dancing, believing that people were watching them and secretly laughing at them. Little did the know that when they were having fun dancing, it didn't matter that they were the biggest fool on the dance floor. So long as they were having fun, it didn't matter what people thought.  
Shinji nodded, "I-I'm sure. I-I'm fine here,"  
Meito sighed. She looked toward Sumi, feeling a bit sorry for her. She knew Sumi liked to dance but would be obligated to stay off the dance floor to keep him company.  
Shinji and Sumi remained where they were as the Meito, Alison, and Sen took to the dance floor. They watched as Sen became the middle of a female sandwich, him facing Meito as Alison danced against his back.  
"Looks like Sen's enjoying himself. He's extremely outgoing, much like Meito, and loved to have fun," Sumi giggled. Sen always knew how to have fun, by far the most outgoing person of anyone she knew. The comment, however, made Shinji wonder how Sen was compared to Ranma.  
Sumi glanced at Shinji as he watched the three of them dancing. She noticed that as she stood next to him, she didn't feel bad that she would not be dancing, needing to keep Shinji company.  
"You don't dance, right?" she asked.  
Shinji shook his head, "No. Um, how about you?"  
The only dancing he did didn't really count. It had been the dancing he had performed with Asuka during the time they needed to synchronize their EVAs to defeat a certain Angel that had split in to two.  
"Yeah," she said, "I usually dance whenever I come here," "Oh," Shinji felt bad, "Um, why not go dance then? Please, don't let me be the reason why you're not having any fun,"  
"Who says I'm not having any fun?" she smiled warmly.  
As the two indulged in conversation, two individuals spotted Shinji and recognized him.  
One of them was the short-haired man Shinji had defeated a few weeks ago. Mortified from what had happened, he had a festering hatred toward the young man, a man whose name he didn't even know. The man also had a hatred toward Ranma for humiliating him, but he had forgotten what Ranma looked like. Besides, the man knew when to lick his wounds and take it like a man, Ranma superior to him and not to be trifled with. Shinji, on the other hand, was just a little twerp.  
"That's him!" the man said, grabbing at his friends' attention, "That's the man that fucked up my ankle,"  
The man had a brace on his damaged foot, the tendon of his Achilles having been ruptured from the grapple lock Shinji had put him. His foot would take months before it healed cordingly and he was back to normal, no thanks to Shinji. Funnily enough was the fact that the man was at the dance club even though his foot was in a brace. Of course, he was a man and real men don't dance. That was what he told himself.  
"Whatcha talking about?" one of his friends asked. He was giving his friend an odd look. Having noticed his friend seemed rather moody since the fight, he had wanted to take him out to get his mind off of things. The short-haired man pointed toward the unsuspecting Shinji across on the other side of the giant room. The friend looked. His eyes widened as he recognized Shinji, "Holy shit! That's the guy!"  
He remembered Shinji clearly that day in the record store.  
"Go get the others," the short-haired man said, "My medical bill is in the tens of thousands because of him. You and our friends are going to have him pay for it with his face,"  
The friend gave a meek smile, "I dunno, man. He may be small, but-"  
"I don't care if he knows how to fight!" the short-haired man sneered, "Tou's in jail because of that guy's friend, whoever he is. My ankle is all messed up because of that guy. I'm not going to let him off,"  
"B-but we started with him and his friend on both occasions," the man stated.  
"I don't care!" "We're going to get kicked out for starting a fight," the friend commented.  
"I don't care! It's worth it!"  
"Fine," the friend sighed as he walked off to get their friends.  
Unaware that the friend was gathering the four friends that had accompanied them, Shinji and Sumi indulged in conversation.  
"Um, d-do they have dance clubs in Kyoto?" Shinji asked.  
Sumi nodded, "Yes, one, but I've never been to it before. You need to at least be eighteen to enter. I never went there before I left to attend college. Now that I'm old enough to go, I'm interested to see if it's any good. I'll be going to Sen and Alison and a few other friends that will be back home for summer break,"  
"Oh," Shinji said, "Um, w-when is your birthday?"  
"The third of September," Sumi smirked, "Yes, the first day when Fall semester classes start. I was in MegaTokyo the day before my birthday so I wasn't able to check the club out before I left,"  
Shinji took note of her birthday. Ranma had mentioned one good thing to remember was a girl's birthday if he ever wanted to be looked upon fondly.  
"Um, what about you?" she asked. Shinji thought about it for a moment. He actually didn't really know what his date of birth was June 6th. However, he when this world was on a different month than when he left his world. Although Shinji was actually supposed to be eighteen, because of his arrive at an odd time, he was considered nineteen. He, like everyone else that came here, had originally been asked if he wanted to be giving a different birthday, to coincide with the time of how long he had been alive. Like everyone, they had chosen to stick with their own birthdays, even if it did make them seem older than they were supposed to be.  
"The sixth of June," he answered.  
"Oh man, that's only two weeks from now," Sumi said in surprise. Shinji nodded.  
"We have to celebrate it," Sumi said.  
"Um, okay," Shinji shrugged.  
He didn't really understand why she felt the need to celebrate it. However, he had no problems against it. Someone tapped on Shinji's shoulder, causing him to turn around.  
The moment Shinji turned around, he was struck in the side of the head with a beer bottle. Luckily for him, and not really knowing exactly how it happened, Shinji had instinctively shifted his head and body slightly in the direction the beer bottle had been swung, the severity of the impact lessened by half. The bottle, however, had been swung fast enough to break, spilling its alcoholic contents all over Shinji's face and clothes.  
Shinji ended falling to the floor on to his hand and knees because of the shock of what had just happened.  
Although dark, he noticed the droplets of blood falling on to the floor coupled with the beer running down his head and even his back. He could see white spots clouding his vision as bolts of pain was shooting through the side of this head by his temple. It only took him a moment before he realized what had happened, that he had just been struck with a beer bottle.  
He looked up and caught sight of the man that had stuck him. He didn't recognize the man. He noticed five big guys standing near him.  
The music kept playing loudly and only several people nearby had caught sight of what had happened. They simply stopped their talking to watch the scene play out in front of them.  
"What the hell did you do that for?" Shinji said through clenched teeth. He couldn't believe his bad luck. This was the third fight he had gotten in about a month. "What do you think?" came a voice from behind the man, "You're in for a world of hurt!"  
Shinji instantly recognized the man. It was the short-haired man he had beaten up in the record store a few weeks ago. A second later, he recognized the man near that guy, the friend that had run out of the store that day. A massive surge of adrenaline surged through him as he suddenly realized what was going to happen. He had spoken to Emiko about this, about how he was scared that the guy would seek revenge and might stab him or something. He was in trouble because the man and his friends were going to hurt him badly.  
I'm not going down without a fight, Shinji thought to himself. I'm going to get hurt, but I'm going to do exactly what Ranma did against those Angels, go down fighting.  
Shinji was going to have to fight for his life.  
Shinji's body went in to battle-mode as he dashed forward, wanting to incapacitate anyone that was of threat. The first man that was of immediate threat was the man holding the broken beer bottle.  
He kicked the hand holding the bottle, causing it to shatter, sending shards of glass toward the man, some of them becoming embedding in his hand.  
The man shouted in surprise and pain but stopped when a his throat was struck, Shinji having struck him his Adam's apple with the curve between his thumb and index finger.  
The man grabbed at his throat, his eyes suddenly becoming wide as he was unable to breath, a state of panic enveloping him.  
Shinji then grabbed two of the fingers of panicking man and bent it upwards and pushed toward the man, causing the man to fall right to his knees. A split second later a loud cracking noise could be heard, the man's two fingers broken before he had a chance to react. When the man tried to scream again, Shinji did a front kick right in to the guy's face, not caring about finesse or form, going for pure damage and power.  
The man's head snapped back as he fell backwards on his back unconscious.  
As Shinji was bringing his foot back, he was struck in the side of the head from the left, where the bottle his struck him.  
It further opened the nasty gash. However, because of the adrenaline, Shinji didn't feel the pain.  
As the man was retracting his extended arm, Shinji recovered from the blow and lashed out with a kick to the man's mid-section, the toes of his feet digging right in to the man's torso.  
The pain from being his in the solar plexus has caused the man to keel over at the waist, the back of his head exposed where Shinji rained an elbow right down on it, sending the man falling down to his stomach unconscious.  
As Shinji turned his attention forward, he caught sight of a giant fist of someone's left arm flying straight toward him from his right. He quickly threw his own punch right at the man's incoming fist, moving having it connect slightly lower that the knuckles. Because of Shinji's smaller fist and the way which he had hit the fist, all four fingers were dislocated.  
As the man screamed, Shinji reached out and grabbed the wrist of the man's extended arm as he was retracting it toward his body. With wrist firmly in his hand, Shinji cranked it outward, sending the man flipping toward the side, his feet coming over head, where he landed on his stomach the small fence surrounding the dance floor, falling over where he landed on his back on the dance floor, curling up in to a fetal position cradling him badly damaged hand.  
As the music played loudly, several more people unaware of what had been happening, looked over and noticed what was transpiring.  
Shinji turned his attention toward his next opponent and was tackled full force right in his midsection, the man's shoulder hitting him right in the solar plexus. The force of the blow had caused Shinji to lose his wind as the momentum caused him to fall backwards and on to the floor, the man's enormous weight coming right down on him.  
Upon the moment his back hit the floor, Shinji instinctively arched his back, causing the man to actually continue moving forward, flipping over Shinji where he landed on his own back, Shinji ending up top of him. However, rather than coming to rest on the man's stomach in a mounted position, Shinji rolled backwards over the man's legs and seized his right ankle in his arm pit, digging his forearm in to the Achilles, as he brought the man in to an Achilles Lock as they lay on the floor.  
Shinji leaned backwards, leaning back so for that the man's toes ended up pointing toward the floor, the man's Achilles becoming ruptured in the process. The man's excruciating scream was so loud that it was able to drown out the music, the DJ hearing it and stopping what he was doing, knowing something wrong was going on. The stop in music had caused everyone to look about. It only took a moment for them to realize that a fight had broke out.  
"Fight!" someone screamed.  
Shinji rolled backwards again and got to his feet. He looked about for where Sumi and her friends were. He saw Sumi standing right were she was, seemingly in a state of shock of seeing what was going on. Her friends were on the dance floor, a short distance away. Sumi was in danger. Shinji needed to keep her safe.  
He ran forward toward the group, to get between them an Sumi. The front-most guy, having seen Shinji take out three guys almost twice his size, furious at seeing the charging Shinji, punched toward at him with his right hand.  
Shinji dodged toward the right, the fist just grazing his left cheek. Moving with speed that was even surprising to him, Shinji seized the man's fully extended arm with his right arm while simultaneous hitting back of the elbow with an open-palm strike, causing the elbow of the man's extended arm to be hyperextended. Although Shinji had only struck the elbow lightly, the tiny force used was enough to cause excruciating pain to shoot up the man's arm as the elbow was dislocated for a split second before popping right back in to place.  
The man fell to the floor crying, clutching his arm.  
Everyone was, especially Sumi, shocked at how brutal Shinji's fighting style was. The only word that best described his style was 'brutal'. They looked debilitating, causing such extensive damage to the body and joints that there was a chance the poor person's body would never work quite the same.  
"Look out!" Sumi said.  
Shinji was unable to react as he suddenly found himself tackled from behind, falling forward, unable to keep afoot. However, as he fell forward, he twisted around in his opponent's arms so that they were facing each other, wrapping his arms around the man's arms, locking it in place, as Shinji fell down and landed all his weight, his weight vest included, on the man's wrapped-around arms. Because of Shinji's weight, the added weight of the vest, the weight of the man on top of Shinji as well, one of the plates in Shinji's vest crushed and broke one of the radius and ulna of one of the man's forearms.  
The man let go of Shinji, rolling off the young man to clutch at his broken forearm.  
Shinji breathed a sigh of relief as he got to his feet. Where the heck had that guy come from, he thought nervously. How many friends did that short-haired guy have with him?  
Before Sumi even had a chance to say anything, Shinji was tackled from the side and slammed against the wall. His eyes widened as he found himself looking face to face with a giant of a man as the man picked him up off his feet as he held Shinji against the wall by his shirt collar.  
"Enough!" the man sneered.  
Shinji, still in fight-mode, brought both arms up and executed open-palm strikes at the back of the man's, hyperextending the elbows, causing the giant man to scream out in pain, dropping his hold of Shinji where Shinji grabbed the man's own collar and pulled him toward him while he simultaneously dropped down.  
The man, off balance from the pain shooting up his arms, found himself falling forward where he hit his face against the wall Shinji had been held again, his nose breaking upon impact as Shinji crawled underneath his legs.  
Once underneath and between the man's legs, Shinji stood up, using his legs to actually power himself up, lifting the giant man on his shoulders as he stood to his full height before flipping him over his shoulders toward one side, the man falling to the ground on his head, knocked unconscious from the impact.  
Shinji was breathing deeply, extremely fatigued.  
He looked around and noticed everyone was looking at him in shocked silence, stunned speechless at the sight of having seen such a small young man incapacitated so many men in so short a time.  
He noticed Sumi was still where she was, seemingly unhurt. Her friends were now by her side. Right by them were the two guys Shinji remembered from the record store. They looked very very scared.  
Shinji knew the face of fear when he saw it. They showed true fear. More surprising it, it was of fear of him. He did not need to worry about them.  
Shinji looked around and noticed that there seemed to be no more immediate threat. Everyone was either unconscious or incapacitated.  
He headed over to where Sumi and the other were.  
"L-let's get out of here," he said, grabbing one of Sumi's hands.  
Sumi staggered as she followed after Shinji toward the door labeled 'exit'. Her friends, feeling that it was definitely time to leave, followed closely behind.  
Once outside, Shinji looked around to see where he was. He noticed that they had emerged by one side of the building, in a small alleyway that led to the street.  
Since there were no one around, Shinji took the time to compose himself and calm down. His body felt like it wanted to shut down, pushed beyond its limit. Although the fight had probably last no more that six or seven minutes, it was more tiring than that Saturday he spent around six hours at Makunouchi Gym. The post-adrenaline stage always left people feeling drained both physically and mentally.  
"Man, that was incredible!" Sen commented.  
"Man, I can't believe how you handled yourself back there," Alison commented, finding herself very attracted toward her friend's friend all of a sudden. Her initial impression of Shinji was that he seemed like a shy-guy trying to force himself to become more outgoing. He had a rather nice build, but that was most likely because of he probably worked out, to most likely build up a sense of confidence.  
What really shocked her was how Shinji's somewhat meek sense of composure gave no indication of just how great a fighter he was. She didn't even know he knew how to fight, figuring he probably never been in a fight in his life. It was just that a person that was an amazing fighter usually exuded a sense of confidence that Shinji should exude as well when they first met. The fact that he didn't gave him an air of mystery to him that she found rather appealing and intriguing.  
"We should head back," Sumi suggested, not really knowing what to think of Shinji. She remembered seeing Shinji beat Tou up, and quite easily at that, beating him a feat in itself, but she never figured Shinji had been that good.  
Everyone agreed. kingether, Shinji and the others headed for the car which was parked a block away in a nearby free parking garage, built specifically to accommodate the students and drove 'Downtown' to have some fun.  
When they emerged from the alleyway, they heard someone shout.  
"Freeze!"

Ranma yawned as he headed to the kitchen at around four in the morning, wanting a snack.  
He glanced toward the couch and noticed that it was empty. Shinji would be sleeping there if he were home, the two of them having agreed to switch rooms, Ranma tired of sleeping on the couch for around two weeks.  
"Heh, he must be having a fun time," Ranma smirked, figuring Shinji would had been back at around midnight.  
The phone rang, startling Ranma for a bit, the ringing echoing throughout the quiet house. Since he was nearby, he picked it up on the first ring.  
"Hello?" he asked, smirking, pretty sure it was Shinji.  
"Um, R-Ranma?" he recognized Shinji's voice.  
"I figured it'd be you," Ranma said, "So, where are you? Are you out having fun?"  
"Um, I'm in jail," Shinji said in a very embarrassed and nervous voice.  
"Wow, you must've really had some fun,"

Shinji paced and back and forth in his holding cell within A.D. Police. His body felt tired yet he felt wide awake. He felt very nervous about what Ranma would think when he saw him behind bars. He was also worried about what was to happen when Ranma showed up. Ranma was a wanted man. Heck, the holding cell was the exact same holding cell much had been in not too long ago. The wall behind him was discolored, having been destroyed when Ranma had escaped.  
Shinji remembered Ranma mentioning about how he got arrested not too long ago, when he had come by the station to visit Nene. He had said he played along and hung around for a few hours before he got bored and broke out. There was a massive man hunt for him and everything.  
He laughed. Ranma lived in the same city where A.D. Police headquarters was and they had yet to find him. Talk about competent. Actually, the two people who actually could immediately lead to the capture of Ranma, Nene and Leon, two people who actually worked there, had conveniently decided not to tell them that Ranma was their friend. I'm not Ranma though, Shinji thought to himself, sitting down by the bench that lined the discolored wall. He felt very worried as he wondered what was going to happened to him. When the authorities discovered the weight vest, they thought he was wearing body armor. Body armor! That had been promptly taken away and he would have to get it back when he was let out.  
It had been discovered that Shinji had beat up four college students and three bouncers that night. It shocked the hell out of Shinji that he had fought of bouncers. He thought they were friends of the short-haired guy. Funnily enough, now that he thought about it, the very last guy he defeated, the guy that slammed him against the wall had actually been the guy that looked at his license by the club entrance.  
During his phone call, Ranma had said he would have everything taken care of and was on his way to 'break' him out. He had said that in those words right before he hung up.  
Shinji started when he heard gun fire echoing from somewhere the front of the building. It seemed like the officers on shift that night recognized Ranma and wanted to capture him.  
Sounds of machine guns could be heard now.  
It seemed Ranma had decided to use the front entrance.

new stuff 9/15

Ranma grinned as he rounded the hallway corner to see Shinji in his holding cell. It had taken him fifteen minutes making his way to the holding cell where Shinji was. Since there were four section of holding cells, Ranma had wasted time going to the three other section before finally realizing that it was the section where he had been held.  
He couldn't help but laugh when he realized something, "That's so funny. You're in the same holding cell as I was in before. You see that discolored wall? That's from me,"  
"I kinda figured out," Shinji gave a meek laugh.  
Ranma walked over to where the cell was and gripped both hands on the steel bars separating the two of them. With no effort was so ever, he yanked the gate door right off its hinges, gently resting it by the wall next to him.  
Shinji was in a state of shock upon seeing such a feat done so easily.  
"What the heck are you so surprised about?" Ranma asked, "You've seen me do stuff like this all the time. You should be used to it,"  
"I know but still-" Shinji began.  
Ranma gestured toward the bandages on the side of Shinji's head, "That's where the beer bottle hit you?"  
Shinji nodded.  
"Where's your vest?" Ranma asked, not even needing to see it to know. Shinji shrugged,  
"Hm, they're probably holding it in that evidence room or whatever they call it," Ranma said, jerking a thumb over his back, "I passed by it on the way here,"  
"Um, w-what do you think's going to happen?" Shinji asked, "This'll be big news, that you broke in to A.D. Police Headquarters and busted me out. What's going to happen to me?"  
Ranma placed an arm around Shinji's shoulder, "Don't worry. It'll all be taken care of. I called Nene and Ritsuko before I came here. They were pissed being woken up so early in the morning, but they didn't seem to mind when they realized it was me. Anyway, I asked them to hack in Headquarters' main computers and erase whatever records they took down of you being here,"  
"R-really?"  
"Uh huh," Ranma nodded, "Basically, whatever charges you racked up has just been deleted,"  
"Wow, um, t-thanks,"  
"Don't thank me, thank Nene and Ritsuko sometime tomorrow," Ranma smiled, "Now, let's go find that weight vest and be outta here,"  
"What did you do to the officers and people that were here?" Shinji asked, "I heard gun shots and explosions before you showed up,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Nothing to worry about. They recognized me and were trying to take me down and capture me. Heh, as you can tell, A.D. Police is really competent at doing that. Anyway, I hit everyone's pressure points. They're all asleep, heh, even the hot chicks,"  
Shinji became silent. He couldn't help but wonder if Ranma is the type of person that would cop a feel after he hit a pretty girl's pressure point and lay helplessly asleep.  
"You're a pervert to think I would do that," Ranma smirked, laughing, "But then again, you'd be a sissy if you didn't. And now that I think of it, I'd be a pervert if I actually did that and a sissy if I didn't. Hm, what a dilemma,"  
Shinji narrowed his eyes.  
"Heh, wouldn't you like to know if I did," Ranma grinned, "Too bad you can't read minds,"  
Shinji sighed. Ranma was so unpredictable.  
"C'mon, let's go find the vest and be outta here. I'm very interested in finding out the details of just what happened that landed you in here,"

Shinji nervously paced back and forth in front of Sumi's dorm apartment earlier in the morning. It was now eleven in the morning on Saturday. During the party, Sumi had mentioned that she was expected to be leaving at eleven-thirty.  
Shinji wanted to be there to see her off, to let her know that he was okay. She had been deathly worried about him when he was carted off to jail, handcuffed and even read his rights.  
Since Sumi and the others had nothing to do with what had happened, they were dismissed and sent away, their statement that Shinji was not at fault noted before Shinji was led away.  
Before, showing up at the dorm building, Shinji was healed by Luna and had went and visited Nene and Ritsuko, thanking them in-person for having did as Ranma mentioned. Funnily enough, they had did the favor only a few hours before he showed up, having woken up late.  
Shinji continued to pace around, wondering if Sumi had left early already. He regretted that he had no idea exactly which door room was hers.  
He was very surprised when he saw Meito's car pulling up to the building and Meito, Sumi, Alison, and Sen emerged from it, a confused look on their faces.  
"I don't get it," Sumi commented, "The officers last night said that he to be taken there. However, he wasn't there. Also, what was there so many internal affairs-type people lingering around doing some kinda investigation on the building,"  
"I know," Meito commented, "You'd think someone broke out or something,"  
"Wait, you don't think it's because..." Sumi started, her eyes widening.  
"No!" everyone said.  
Shinji was approaching the group as they said that.  
"Um, h-hi," he gave a meek smile.  
"Oh my God!" everyone's eyes widened.  
"What?" he asked.  
"W-what are you doing here?" Alison was the first to ask.  
"I-I escaped," he joked, figuring it was a good ice-breaker. Ranma had recommended he say that.  
Everyone's eyes widened.  
"What?"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, I-I was only joking. Um, I was released a few hours ago,"  
"Oh," everyone said.  
"Um, I just wanted to stop by to let you all know that I'm fine," Shinji smiled nervously, "Um, they realized that what had happened was all in self-  
defense and let me go,"  
Sumi sighed in relief, "Thank goodness. I was so worried about you. I didn't know what was going to had to you. I didn't get a wink of sleep last night because I was so worried,"  
Shinji blushed. It felt very nice and heart-warming that she worried about him.  
"And who might this be?" came a male voice.  
Shinji looked past the group toward the middle-aged couple approaching them. He didn't even need to think for a second before he realized that they were Sumi's parents. The man had short brown hair, his temples graying, his eyes covered by the shades he was wearing. He was wearing a rather casual outfit consisting of slackers and a designer t-shirt which gave him a rather calm, collected and easy-going look.  
The woman had shoulder-length brown hair and was wearing a casual summer dress. She was very pretty and looked like an older version of Sumi. Seeing her gave indication of how gracefully beautiful Sumi would eventually become.  
"H-hi," Shinji gave a nervous but polite bow, "I'm Shinji,"  
The couple regarded him intently. They noticed that he seemed a bit on the shy side but looked like a very nice guy. His bowing, a form of greeting lost decades ago, they liked and immediately took a liking to him.  
"I'm Kyo, Sumi's father," the father said, "However, everyone calls me Tinkerman,"  
"Tinkerman?" Shinji found the nickname a bit odd,"  
Tinkerman nodded, "It's a nickname from when I was young and worked on a navy merchant ship called 'Witch Hunter'. That was a long time ago," he gestured toward the woman next to him, "This is my wife, Sayuri,"  
"It's nice to meet you," she smiled a warm smile, "I won't bother giving you my nickname,"  
"It's Mouse," Tinkerman said, grinning.  
Sayuri narrowed her eyes as she looked at him.  
Shinji smiled. They reminded him of atypical adults. He felt very comfortable instantly with them because they reminded him much of the adults he knew.  
"You two used to be on a ship together, huh?" Shinji asked, "A navy merchant ship, too? I've been wondering, exactly what is a 'reduction gear' and is it true that the Navy actually lease those reduction gears because they're so expensive?"  
The two parents found themselves really liking him.  
Since Tinkerman worked in the engine room on the ship, a machinists-mate as he was consider, he felt obligated and thrilled to answer the inquiring young man, "Well, it basically takes the torque generated from the main engines and converts them in to torque for the shaft that is connected to the propeller. That's because it reduces the high rotational speed of the engines, which is probably at around five thousand RPMs to the much slower speed of around eighty RPMs which is used for the propeller. It also The reduction gears is the single most expensive piece of equipment on this ship so, yes, it is leased by the Navy,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, lost.  
"It's basically the transmission of the ship," Tinkerman said, smirking.  
Sumi was looking back and forth as her father and Shinji spoke to one another. Although her father was a very amiable guy, he had never taken such an immediate liking to someone before.  
"I understand," Shinji said, "Are they still being used?"  
Tinkerman shook his head, "Not anymore. They were replaced ever since ships were fitted with Cyclic Turbines, which basically had reduction gears built right on them,"  
"Oh," Shinji said.  
"So, you two know each other?" Tinkerman asked, gesturing to him and Sumi.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Y-yes. We're classmates. Um, I-I was here to say goodbye,"  
He chose not to disclose that he was also there to tell her that he was no longer in jail.  
"That's nice," Sayuri said warmly, "It's nice meeting Sumi's friends,"  
"Um," Sumi began.  
Shinji turned back around to face her.  
"Yes?" he asked.  
Sumi and Shinji were alone. Her parents and friends had gone in the building, wanting to make a last-minute check-through of the dorm to make sure they hadn't missed packing everything up.  
"Um, I hope you have a great summer," she said, giving him a hug had which prompted a blush.  
"Um, I-I hope you have a great summer as well," Shinji said.  
"I hope you come visit," Sumi smiled.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "I-I hope to come visit too,"  
Sumi blushed slightly, visibly nervous.  
"Well, I guess I'll get going now," Shinji said, "You have a safe trip home,"  
"I will, thanks," she smiled.  
"Bye," he felt a bit sad to be saying goodbye.  
"Bye," she said.  
Shinji turned around and began heading off.  
"Shinji," she called out.  
"Yes?" he turned back around.  
"Um, well, y-you said your birthday is on the sixth of June, right?"  
Shinji nodded.  
"Um, well, s-since we won't be around to celebrate it..." she began.  
Sumi ran forward and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before quickly running off, terribly embarrassed for what she had done, but not before she had managed to say something to him.  
"Happy birthday,"

Emiko noticed that Shinji had a very happy look on his face as he approached the gym at noontime.  
"Something seems to be making you happy," Emiko smirked.  
"More or less," he smiled.  
"Care to talk about it?" she felt very curious.  
Shinji blushed. Although very good friend with Emiko nowadays, he felt way too uncomfortable about talking about something such as getting kissed. Heck, he doubted he would even confide in Ranma about it. However, the first person he would ever talk to about something like that would be Ranma.  
"It's nothing too interesting," Shinji commented, "I think I look extra happy because I'm done with school. I have the whole summer off,"  
The two of them entered the gym, Shinji holding the door open for her.  
"What are you going to be doing for the summer?" she asked as the two of them went about stretching. Since Shinji had dressed up in training attire, he didn't need to change in the locker room.  
"What, Ranma didn't tell you?" Shinji asked. Emiko shook her head, "No,"  
She didn't bother to mention that she talked to Ranma around a fraction the amount she talked to Shinji. The interaction she had with Ranma usually consisted of Ranma just saying something stupid and she just voicing her annoyance toward him for saying it.  
"I'm gonna be teaching at the dojo," Shinji said, actually feeling excited, "Considering how much I freeload off him and Akane, I wanna at least do something to return the favor,"  
Emiko became silent. She was a freeloader also. Should she start doing something like what Shinji was doing?  
"I dunno how good I'll be at teaching a class," he stated, "Actually, I'm really worried how I'd do teaching a class,"  
"When do you start?"  
"Ranma said around two weeks or so,"  
About two weeks passed by. Everyone, except for Shinji, had started noticing a huge change in Shinji. However, they seemed to show no signs of acknowledging that they noticed this change. The training and diet he had kept steadfast to had continued to make his speed and power increase. Shinji's general shyness still remained. It made Shinji Shinji. However, it had become that he was gradually becoming less and less self-conscious about talking to girls, all thanks to what Ranma had told him to do, to talk to at least one random girl a day.  
Before long, Shinji's birthday, June 6th, came around before he even realized it. He didn't even realize that it had been his birthday until he had received a phone call sometime in the evening, the time he was usually home.  
"Shinji, phone," Akane had a big smile on her face.  
"Phone? For me?" he asked, confused. He never got phone calls before.  
Akane regarded Shinji for a moment, admiring how much he had changed. Around two weeks had passed since he had finished his Fall semester. Shinji took the phone, "Hello?"  
"Happy birthday," were the first words that he heard.  
Recognizing Sumi's voice, feeling very happy to be hearing it, Shinji didn't even realize that this was the second time she had ever called him. He had no phone experience since when she first called him yet seemed to have grown used to actually talking on the phone, at least without seeming so nervous.  
"Thanks," he smiled, "How've you been doing? How's your summer coming along?"  
"Fine. My summer's been coming along fine," came the reply, "I've been busy working at my mom's restaurant and interning at my dad's engineering company. How about you? You said you were going to start teaching martial arts, right?"  
Shinji said, "Yeah. I start the day after tomorrow,"  
The two of them indulged in conversation on the phone for a bit before Shinji said that he had to go eat dinner.  
"I'm glad you called, " he said, feeling at ease. Even though he wasn't actually talking to her face-to-face, he was comfortable enough knowing that it was her on the other side that he had no problem talking to her like they used to, in-between classes.  
After a short time spent talking, Shinji realized that it was nearing dinnertime and reluctantly said that he had to go.  
"Um, I'll try and visit over the summer," he added.  
"All right, looking forward to it," she said before hanging up.  
When Shinji hung up the phone, he told himself that he was really going to try and visit.  
The following day, Shinji was in for a surprise when he and Emiko entered Makunouchi Gym after he was finished with their first jogging session. Before he had a chance to begin doing his weightlifting exercises, Ippo approached him.  
"You've really come along," Ippo said proudly, starting to finally see the promise that his gut instinct had been indicating all along. "Thanks," Shinji replied, feeling proud of himself. He had started noticing that he was becoming better than some of the gym patrons that had been there longer than him, his punches moving the punching bag a good amount with every impact. He was able to do speed bag rather efficiently, no where near as fast as Emiko but fast enough to be considered normal speed. It would only be a matter of time before he would be able to hit the speed bag at a speed that even Emiko would take notice.  
"Today, you will be sparring," Ippo smiled, handing Shinji some boxing gloves, a mouthpiece, and head gear, "Hop in the ring,"  
Shinji became deathly silent.  
"Go," Ippo commanded him.  
Shinji gulped as he put on the gloves and head gear and climbed in to the ring. The moment he found himself standing the ring for the very first time, which was roughly a month and a half after having first started training, Shinji's heart started racing, his adrenaline kicking in.  
As he stood there, he realized that Ippo wasn't climbing in to the ring. Instead, a fellow gym patron was climbing in. Shinji realized that it was the same man that had sparred Ippo around a month ago, the man that had recently won his most recent fight a short time ago, winning himself a chance to move on to the semi-finals in the Welterweight Rookie Championship, a tournament for anyone around the one hundred and forty seven pound range. It seemed the man's sparring against Ippo and Ippo's Flicker Jab had made it possible for him to be able to fight an opponent that used that style.  
Shinji gulped. He looked toward the side where he saw Ippo and Emiko watching him. Seeing the two of them seemed to calm his nerves.  
"All right," Ippo said from the side of the ring, "All I want you to do is to attempt to block. Ko here will go easy on you. Isn't that right, Ko?"  
The man named Ko nodded, "Sure thing, coach,"  
Ippo was closest to Ippo and said something softly to him while Ko was doing some quick stretching, his back toward the two of them.  
"I know you're good," Ippo said softly, "Just box and knock him out. Ko hasn't lost a single sparring match since he found again me and he's gotten a bit of a bloated head, especially since his last win. Losing a person he doesn't even consider a rookie will bring him down a peg or two,"  
"O-okay," Shinji stammered nervously.  
"D-do you think he is experienced enough to spar right away?" Emiko asked, concern in her voice.  
Ippo smiled, "Of course,"  
He couldn't help but notice the concern in her voice. It seemed like Shinji and Emiko were becoming closer and closer.  
Ippo rang the bell to signal the start of the round. Most of the gym patrons that heard the bell looked toward the ring to see who was sparring. Realizing that it was Shinji, they were interested in seeing just how far he had come along since when he first started, a clumsy wannabe boxer.  
Shinji and Ko circled one another. He felt very nervous as he faced off against a total stranger. Sure, he remembered the man being in the gym since he had first started training her, the man still seemed like a stranger.  
The man had a smirk on his face. That seemed to annoy Shinji. It seemed Ippo was right, the man was feeling full of himself.  
However, Shinji knew he had to be cautious since the man was a competent boxer, and the fact that he had no idea how much the man had improved since that sparring session against Ippo.  
Ko walked forward as he approached Shinji, feeling that the young man didn't even need to require any form of footwork to approach. The man assessed Shinji as they circled one another.  
Ippo smirked as he watched Shinji moving around the ring. Shinji's movements were slow and deliberate, creating a sense of spacing that was most likely unnoticed by someone like Ko.  
He noticed that Shinji's movements matched that of a martial arts.  
This is gonna be interesting, Ippo thought, already knowing the outcome of the sparring match. This session is going to be a huge confidence booster for Shinji and will help get used to teaching martial arts like Ranma to me that he's expecting him to be doing a day or so from now.  
Ko did some jabs, Shinji dodging all four of them.  
This guy moves like its slow motion, Shinji thought. I can see it coming and can easily dodge them.  
Shinji continued to circle around, waiting for an opening. His opponent had assumed the Ippo-Peek-a-boo, a stance that guarded his upper body quite well. It was as flawless as Ippo's own version of the stance but emulated well enough to provide quite a defense. Shinji jabbed at Ko, aiming for the man's chin when he thought he saw an opening. "Nice jab," Ippo praised him, "It seems like you've developed excellent form from hitting the punching bag," "T-thanks," Shinji said, finding himself the center of attention, several gym members coming over to observe, never having seen one of the new guys spar.  
The man narrowed his eyes as he found the jab almost connecting, his guard absorbing the blow with his forearms. Shinji's punch, Ko noticed, lacked the devastating power that would be considered damaging.  
The man dashed forward as he attempted a straight punch and found himself punched right in the face with a perfectly executed counter-punch, the combined force of his incoming face and Shinji's incoming fist causing more damage than a regular punch. However, Shinji's counter-punch wasn't very powerful. It felt like that of a jab punch from a pro opponent when he was fighting a real match.  
Emiko was about to say something when Shinji landed that counter-punch but didn't, blushing a bit in embarrassment. She was wondering what she should be doing. Was she supposed to be cheering.  
"Hey, coach, why's 'Stumble' sparring against someone like Ko?" one of the patrons asked Ippo. Emiko looked toward the patron that was standing on the other side of Ippo. She didn't like that nickname patrons had given him.  
Shinji had been given the nickname 'Stumble' by the regular gym patrons. It had been a fitting name given to Shinji during the first week or so of training, when he had been constantly tripping over the jump-rope and becoming tangled up. People referred to him as 'Stumble' and the nickname stuck, even after Shinji had become proficient, his footwork actually matching that of skilled out-  
fighters, boxers used to using their feet to keep at "Ko's really aggressive and might hurt him," the added, words that seemed to worry Emiko. She remembered Shinji's opponent that day he had sparred against Ippo. Although the man lost, he clearly a skilled boxer. It was just that Ippo was that much more skilled than made him seem like a rookie when compared to Ippo.  
Ippo smiled, "Don't worry. I'm aware of how good and aggressive Ko is,"  
He couldn't help but think back to when he had first started training in boxing. Heck, before he even started training, his coach, Kamogawa, had forced him in to the ring the very first day he showed up at the gym, to fight an opponent named Miyata, a boxer too young to be a pro at that time due to there being an age limit.  
This reminded him of such a situation. However, unlike Ippo, Shinji was stepping in to the ring with fighting experience and a seemingly innate ability to dodge.  
He watched as Ko slowly started to show his frustration. He was starting to jab more often, hoping to land that one jab that would stun the young man so that he could land a straight punch. Unfortunately, he found himself unable to land it.  
How's this guy dodge so easily, Ko thought. It was two minutes in to the round and he had yet to land a single punch. Heck, the kid actually landed a punch on you.  
He's really really slow, Shinji thought. Sparring against Ranma has gotten me used to a superiorly fast opponent. Although he manages to land punches on me all the time, I can see the incoming punch at least and try and react before I actually get hit. Is this why Ranma's only been punching me in sparring matches? Is it to get me used to this kind of style?  
Shinji found himself able to anticipate the incoming punch by simply observing the man's hips and shoulders. He didn't even need to look at the gloves. By observing the shoulders, Shinji was able to see the motion for a jab or straight punch with relative ease. Since uppercuts and hook punches required the use of hips, any big movements he saw in the hips indicated that it would be a more powerful punch.  
Ko, very frustrated, threw out a wild right hook punch.  
Shinji saw the hook punch coming from a mile away, noticing how his opponent stepped in with his left foot and stamped in on the ring canvas.  
Incoming right hook punch, Shinji thought. Duck and punish.  
Shinji's body reacted to the thought as he ducked the wild right hook punch, giving his own right hook right to the area slightly below the middle of the chest, the man's solar plexus. The punch had only a small amount of power behind it. However, it's aim was what gave it such a devastating effect. Ko's mouthpiece came out as he found a massive shockwave traveled through his body, the wind getting knocked out of him. Since there were a significant amount of nerve ending in the solar plexus, a sharp blow to it shocked the body, causing it to malfunction.  
The punch had caused him to involuntarily lean forward where he was hit right in the chin with a perfectly aimed second right hook punch.  
The punch shocked the nerve ending in his chin, sending a second shockwave through his body, causing his legs to start malfunctioning. The man staggered back, his legs shaky but still operable.  
"All right, Shinji!" Emiko cheered.  
"Thanks," Shinji smiled, starting to feel very good about himself. I've been worried about sparring against someone for so long that I didn't even realize that I was worrying myself over nothing, Shinji thought. I thought I was going to spar against Ippo all this time. Since I'm not, I can do this.  
Shinji dashed in and executed a straight punch. When his opponent noticed his incoming attack, he executed a counter-punch, his own straight punch to counter it.  
The man was surprised when Shinji noticed the incoming attack and basically uncommitted himself to his punch and dodged toward the side.  
Once again, Ko was punished, punched in the solar plexus not once but twice. When the second punch connected, it was too much for him to handle as he keeled over and fell to the canvas.  
Unfortunately for Shinji, he didn't expected that, his self hook punch toward the man's chin hitting air. Because of he committed himself to the hook punch, his follow-through had caused Shinji to lose his footing.  
Shinji staggered as he hopped on one foot, trying to regain his balance. Unfortunately, he ended up falling through the ropes of the side of the ring where he actually fell through them and landed outside the ring.  
"I think that's the first time I have ever seen someone fall out of the ring right through the ropes before he had a chance to stop himself by grabbing on to them," Ippo chuckled, walking around the outside of the ring to approach Shinji, Emiko following closely behind.  
Shinji had this mortified look on his face, like he wanted to crawl up in to a ball and die. Several of the gym patrons that had been observing were laughing out heartily, much like how many patrons did when Shinji got tangled up in his jump-rope.  
They stopped laughing when they turned their attention in to the ring where they realized Ko and a puddle of vomit in front of him, hit in the solar plexus one too many times.  
"Holy shit! Ko's still down!" one of the patrons commented.  
Ippo looked in to the ring where he saw the vomit, "Jeez! Someone get a mop and bucket!"  
The patron quickly dispersed to get up some cleaning equipment.  
Ippo noticed several patrons tending to Ko, helping him to his feet. Realizing that Ko was okay, he turned his attention back to Shinji, very surprised at just how good the young man was. He never believed Shinji was that good.  
"That just blew me away," Ippo smiled.  
"T-thanks," Shinji meekly smiled.  
"I knew you were good," Ippo commented, "But I didn't realize you were that good. I knew Ranma's been training you but it seemed like his training had made you a very efficient fighter,"  
"Um, t-thanks," Shinji continued to give a meek smile.  
"Oh yeah, thanks for knocking Ko down a peg or two,"  
"Nice shiner," Ranma smirked, gesturing toward the young man's left black eye, "How come you didn't ask Luna to heal you?"  
"Um, it's no cut and anything," Shinji replied, "Besides, I don't want to be constantly bothering her. It's just a bruise anyway. Ippo said I'll be getting these pretty often initially,"  
The two of them were in the dojo at around six that evening. Since Shinji didn't have school to worry about anymore, he occasionally spent his morning in the dojo, training as if he were a student. He went to the gym at noontime and came back around two-thirty where he would spend the time then lounging around until around six where he and Ranma would spar. Ranma had been teaching martial arts more often and usually weren't free until six.  
Shinji's training schedule had been changed slightly from what he was used to. It still consisted of stretching before heading out and jogging, this time running seven times around the block, as well as the usual weightlifting exercises after getting back. Rather than going back out jogging, he went right on to working the punching bag and speed bag before he would then move on to ending his training sparring. He would be starting that tomorrow. "I started sparring today," Shinji said, "I got this black eye from one of my opponents,"  
"One of your opponent?" Ranma smirked. He had figured Shinji would had started sparring today or tomorrow. If he were in Ippo's shoes, he would have made Shinji undergo sparring sessions around now.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I sparred against a total of four fighters. I beat the first guy relatively easy. The second one was a bit harder but still easy. The third one was much harder to beat than the other two. I noticed that each opponent was progressively heavier and stronger than the last. I lost to the forth one. He was the one that gave me this black eye and knocked me out,"  
Ranma whistled, "You got knocked out, huh? The guy must be a really good fighter to do that,  
"He was a Bantamweight and only weigh around a hundred and twenty pounds," Shinji gave a meek smile, "He weighed around thirty pounds less than me but I couldn't beat him,"  
"Lettme guess, it's because you couldn't hit him," Ranma smirked.  
"H-how'd you know?" Shinji was surprised.  
Ippo's a smart man, Ranma thought. He had Shinji purposely fight heavier and slower opponents to throw Shinji's rhythm off.  
"He's lighter than you so he's also faster," Ranma answered, "Usually, power is compensated for speed. The guy probably had a weak punch but his speed enabled him to hit you more times. Over time, constantly getting punched wears you down," Shinji nodded, "I learned the hard way. That guy fought in a way that stumped me,"  
Ranma grinned, "Lettme guess, he used feints,"  
"How'd you know?"  
"That's your main weakness as a fighter," Ranma said, "Against an opponent faster than you who uses feints, you're going to have trouble, at least until you get used to it. Most people look at incoming fists or feet to dodge an attack. However, when you observe hips and shoulders, it's much more effective and allows you to anticipate it way in advance than when a strike is almost about to hit you. A feint messes with that form of technique, observing shoulders and hips. All you need to do is spar against it and you'll be used to it in no time,"  
"How come you never showed me how to fight against feints?" Shinji asked.  
"You never asked," Ranma grinned.  
Shinji fell to the floor.

"Man, that was a good movie," Shinji commented.  
"I agree," the small young boy next to him said.  
Shinji and his new friend, Oki, were walking down the street together in the evening, having enjoyed watching a movie. Only one day had passed since Shinji first started sparring in the gym. Over those days, Shinji had made himself a new friend, a sixteen year old boy named Oki.  
Oki was a boy from Thailand that had extensive training in Mui-Thai Kickboxing, a devastatingly powerful martial art that utilized knees and elbows with deadly effectiveness. A boy with no brothers, he looked up to Shinji like the big brother he never had. This was a huge confidence booster for Shinji.  
He was the hundred and twenty pound opponent that easily beat Shinji a couple of day earlier. He had become Shinji's sparring partner after having beaten him and the person most suited to spar against him.  
The boy and Shinji had met for the very first time yesterday and had become instant friends the very next day when they sparred against each other for a second time.  
It had turned out that the two of them had trained in the same gym at virtually the same time every weekend and since classes had ended, from around noon until two. They had never met because Oki actually trained downstairs, in the lower level where the very advanced fighters fought. He had only come up when Ippo had asked him to spar against someone relatively new.  
They immediately became friends because they had found out that they loved martial arts and a lot in common. They were both training to become better fighters, choosing boxing because of their respect and fondness toward it.  
"Thanks for paying for me," Oki looked up to Shinji.  
"No problem," Shinji smiled.  
Although Shinji was rather small in stature, so was Oki. Oki was very short that his height made him look younger than he really was. He stood to be slightly shorter than Emiko. Despite his size, his body was very powerful.  
Oki was much like Shinji and gave no indication that he knew martial arts as well. His personality was a bit like Shinji's, perhaps a bit more happy-go-  
lucky. "Man, I'm going to be teaching martial arts tomorrow," Shinji sighed, nervous at the thought, "I start tomorrow morning,"  
Although they only knew each other since yesterday, Shinji and Oki conversed like they had been best friends.  
"You'll do fine," Oki commented, "When?"  
"Tomorrow morning," Shinji said.  
"Can I come learn?"

Shinji ran up to Ranma in the front of the class, having been summoned there front where he was sitting.  
"Class," Ranma said, "You will be having a new sensei for the second half of your lessons from now on. If you don't like it, tough,"  
The students laughed. They always liked how untraditional a master Ranma was. Although Ranma taught infrequently, the random times that he does is what usually kept the students motivated to come to every daily lesson, for fear that they would miss out on one of Ranma's lessons. This was because Akane, the better teacher of the two, taught basic and advanced techniques. Ranma, on the other hand, taught mostly highly advanced techniques. Shinji didn't feel all that nervous that morning as he stood in front of the class. Perhaps it was because he saw his friend, Oki, a boy clad in a dogi that seemed one size too large for him that was by the back right corner of the dojo.  
It was day Shinji was expected to teach a class for the very first day. He had been expecting this but was still nervous when both Ranma and Akane said to the class that they will be taught by a new sensei this morning.  
Shinji noticed Oki giving him a 'thumbs up' sign and mouthed the words 'Good luck'. Oki was by the back of the dojo, there for his very first class. It was an advanced class. Ranma had taken him in as a student upon Shinji's recommendation last night without question. He told Oki that he would automatically be put in the more advanced class, Ranma having sensed that Oki had martial arts experience and didn't need to learn the basics.  
Shinji took several deep breaths. He was expected to teach a couple of basic grapple escapes, escapes taught to him only a short while ago. Ranma had told Shinji that he was in charge of teaching the second half of the class and was to teach them grapple escapes. What escapes he taught them was up to him.  
He thought about the conversation he had just a few hours earlier.  
"I've noticed that you seem to have taken a liking to grappling, given the moves you used during that fight that landed you in jail," Ranma mentioned to him early that morning, "So what I'll do is teach you how to become a very effective grappler. That way, you can be in charge of showing the student some basic grapple moves, starting off with escapes. Can you do that?"  
"Um, I-I guess," Shinji had responded nervously.  
Shinji took a few more deep breaths to calm is racing heart. He was much like most people, scared of talking in front of people. However, he didn't feel as deathly afraid as he figured he would be, having started getting used to people paying attention directly to him since he had started sparring at the gym. "Um, h-hello, class," Shinji said nervously as he stood in the front of a room of over fifty students, all of them sitting on the floor, sitting on the back of their calves.  
"Hello, sensei," the students said, bowing toward him. Oki emulated everyone and bowed as well. He couldn't help but feel admiration toward Shinji. Although he could beat the new sensei in sparring sessions at Makunouchi Gym, it was nothing to boast about since Shinji had only been sparring for two days and had made it up to sparring Oki in the very first day.  
"Um, I'm going to be teaching you grappling from here on,"

Shinji felt exhausted as the last student exited the dojo, leaving him and Oki alone. However, he also felt very proud of himself at having accomplished something such as teaching a class. Teaching class wasn't quite as hard as it seemed. It only consisted of Shinji asking a random student to come up to help him demonstrate, students seemingly eager to help out.  
He would then ask the student to grab him in a certain way, which the student did, where Shinji would then escape the grab in slow motion, giving a detailed explanation of how he moved his body and body parts in order to make it possible. After explaining it and demonstrating it in slow motion, he would executed it a few times in full speed, prompting several gasps at how quickly and effective a certain escape was.  
The demonstration only lasted for around five minutes where he would then ask the students to practice on their own with a partners. After around fifteen minutes, he would call for the class' attention, all of them lining up.  
When he did that, it had made him feel very confident, to realize that it was his own voice and command that made the students respond.  
Once everyone had their undivided attention toward him, Shinji went on to demonstrated another grapple escape, a slight variation to the technique he had showed earlier before asking the students to practice that technique for another fifteen minutes.  
The last twenty minutes of class, Shinji had decided to have the students re-  
witctice the first technique. Although the students seemed a bit confused why they were asked to do that, they realized that they had already forgotten how to effectively use the first technique.  
At the end of the class, the students thanked him and praised him that he did well teaching for his first day, some students impressed with his teaching style which was oddly much like Ranma's.  
"I think you're a good teacher," Oki said respectfully, "I like that second grapple escape you demonstrated. It's a unique method of escape from what I'm used to though. However, it's pretty effective,"  
"What would you have done?" Shinji asked.  
Oki said, "Not do something like that. For that particular grab, I was trained to kick my opponent in the knee with the bone of my shin to dislocated the knee and smash my forearm in to the guy's jaw to dislocate it,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, don't you think that's a little overboard to s someone grabbing your shirt collar with one hand?"  
"I know," Oki agreed, "That's why I like what you showed me. It showed me of another way of escaping such a move,"  
"That's good to hear," Shinji said, "Um, what do you think about my having the students re-practice that first technique I showed them?"  
Oki said, "I liked it. When I went back to trying that first technique out, I realized that I had trouble doing it again. It helped me remember it. Even though most students would rather have it where you teach them as many techniques in a lesson, I think it's good that you choose to spend your time getting them to remember a move instead of showing a new one,"  
"Thanks," Shinji smiled.

new stuff 9/16

A couple of days elapse. Shinji was on his way to the bookstore to check up if any new boxing magazine had come out. Oddly enough, it seemed to escape him that the boxing magazines only came out on a monthly basis.  
To his surprise, he saw a giant line formed in front of the store. Shinji was used to seeing long lines every here and there, stretching usually down the block and around the corner. It usually meant that there was some kind of famous person at the bookstore signing autographs.  
"Whoa, Priss is here signing autographs," he said aloud, reading the sign posted by the front double-door entrance. However, it didn't seem to excite him one bit.  
Since Shinji wasn't there for an autograph, he didn't have to worry about waiting on the line. He went in to the bookstore and noticed that the line stretched all the way to the back left of the store. This made him glad that the magazine shelves lined the right side.  
"I'll say hi to her," he told himself, "It's not like she'll be here long and I haven't seen here since last week,"  
Shinji walked over to where the front of the line was, walking up to the booth where she was from the right. Shinji noticed that Priss was sitting at a table that had four giant bodyguards sitting by each corner of the table, clad in black suits that seemed to clash with Priss' own rocker-looking red and black jumpsuit. She looked the part of the rocker-type really well.  
"Hey, Priss," Shinji said.  
Priss looked up from her signing and was pleasantly surprised to see Shinji.  
Shinji walked toward Priss' table but was stopped when the closest body guard grabbed a giant hand over Shinji's slender forearm. However, his grip didn't last when Shinji did a flick of the wrist, the man unable to hold on and losing his grip.  
The man became stumped at what had happened.  
"Y-you don't hafta grab me," Shinji said nervously, trying to be a bit firm.  
Priss' heart skipped a beat as she was suddenly reminded of Ranma. Although Ranma would had been much more firm and told the guy not to touch him, Shinji's attempt was very Ranma-like, just on a meeker scale.  
"It's all right," Priss told the bodyguard, "Let him by,"  
Priss smirked. She couldn't believe how much Shinji had grown. Since she tended to see him only once a week, it was very easy for her to notice the changes he was undergoing. "Grab a chair and have a seat," Priss gestured toward the empty space next to her.  
"Um, I just wanted to say hi," Shinji said, never really intending to stay and chat.  
"Find a chair. Sit next to me," she almost commanded him, "Keep me company,"  
"Y-yes," he said meekly, quickly heading off to look for a chair.  
Shinji noticed there were no chairs, the ones that were around occupied by customers lingering around skimming through magazines and books.  
He looked about for a seat and found none. However, nearby, he found a footstool that customers usually used to reach books on the higher shelves and out of their reach.  
He walked over and grabbed the footstool and brought it back to the table, the body guard reluctantly stepping to the side for Shinji to walk by. Shinji placed the footstool down next to Priss and sat down on it. Unfortunately, because the footstool was so low, he ended up sitting lower than Priss, so low that his head was only at her shoulder height as she sat.  
"So, what brings you here?" Priss asked as she continued to do autographs. Every few seconds, she would be forced to ask what the fan's name was where she would then sign her autograph to that particular person's name.  
Priss was grateful that Shinji was around to keep her company. She had been getting very bored. Besides, it didn't take any extra mind power to sign autographs while chatting.  
"I was looking for some boxing magazines," Shinji answered, "Um, how about you? What are you doing here?"  
Priss smirked, "Guess,"  
Shinji blushed. He had gotten to used to reciprocating the question that was usually asked him. However, he shouldn't had asked such a stupid question.  
"You seem busy," he commented, "We rarely see you around. Heck, none of use had seen you around since last week,"  
"I know," Priss answered, "I'm on tour. However, I set my schedule so that I'm always around MegaTokyo on Fridays. God forbid I miss Friday dinner,"  
Shinji smiled, "I understand what you mean. It's definitely the highlight of my week,"  
"Um, isn't that rather pathetic?" he asked. When he realizes what he had said, he blushed a terrible shade of red from embarrassment.  
Priss smirked, "Man, Shinji, you used to be so shy with your words. It's about time you started being less reluctant about saying what's on your mind,"  
"Um, t-thank you?" he didn't really know what to say.  
"However, what you said was something Ranma would say," Priss smirked, "You're not Ranma. Remember that,"  
Shinji looked toward the ground, embarrassed.  
Priss laughed. After a moment, she asked, "So you're here for boxing magazines, huh? Speaking of which, how's it coming along?"  
"It's fine," Shinji said, "I made a friend from the gym, too. His name is Oki,"  
"Aww, Shinji made a friend," Priss said with warm smile.  
"Man, why'd I tell you if you're gonna make fun of me," Shinji muttered jokingly.  
Priss laughed. Shinji laughed a second later.  
"So, have you started teaching classes yet?" Priss asked curiously, "I remember Ranma mentioning that you're expected to be teaching sometime this week. Did you teach yet?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yes. I only taught for a few days,"  
Priss eyes widened. Had Shinji grown that much that he could actually do something like that? To teach in front of class required a good deal of courage. The Shinji she knew not even two months ago would never do something so nerve-  
racking as teaching a martial arts class. Never. "You get nervous?" she asked, smirking.  
Shinji's eyes widened, "What, you think I didn't? I was very nervous, especially that very first day,"  
"Don't I understand," Priss smile, "I mean c'mon, look who you're talking to. I'm performing in front of close to a hundred thousand people almost every day. I know how it feels to be nervous,"  
Shinji showed true surprise that Priss found rather heart-warming, "You get nervous? Really?"  
Priss smiled, "Yes. Everyone gets nervous, even me,"  
"H-how do you get rid of it?" he asked.  
"Hey, if I knew then I wouldn't be nervous when I start," Priss said.  
Shinji gave a meek smile. He figured he had gotten better at conversation but it seemed like he hadn't and had a long way to go.  
"Don't worry," Priss said, "You'll always be nervous when you have to do something like teach a class, but it won't bother you as much over time,"  
"I hope so," he sighed.  
"So, is that what you're going to be doing mostly doing?" Priss asked curiously, "You're going to be just doing boxing and teaching martial arts for the summer? Speaking of which, how's boxing coming along?"  
Shinji smiled, "It's coming along fine. I actually started sparring in the ring there. I think that might be the reason why I'm able to teach martial arts, because when I'm sparring, people watch me and I started getting used to it. If that were the case, I kinda wished I started sparring earlier so I'd be even more used to being in front of people for when I start teaching. Teaching definitely makes me more nervous than sparring, that's for sure,"  
"I guess your summer is pretty much laid out," Priss smiled, missing that kind of life. However, she chose to become a music superstar and that will be the life she would be living until she decided to disappear from the music scene.  
Shinji nodded, "More or less,"  
Priss grinned, "So tell me, what ever happened to that girlfriend of yours, Sumi if I recall her name correctly,"  
Shinji blushed a deep shade of red, "My girlfriend! S-she's not my girlfriend!"  
"Why not?" Priss asked.  
Shinji became silent. There was no way he could tell. He had thought about how it would be like if she were his girlfriend. However, he was definitely not confident enough to even try and get a girlfriend. He lacked the self-confidence to eve believe himself boyfriend material.  
"Where's she live?" Priss asked, "Does she live elsewhere or does she live around here and commute to school?"  
"Um, she lives in Kyoto, why?" he asked.  
"Why not go visit her?" she asked, "I mean it's summer. I'm sure Ranma and Akane won't mind letting you have some time off from teaching classes to visit her,"  
"Really?" Shinji's eyes lit up. He blushed when he noticed how excited he had suddenly got.  
"Um, I-I wouldn't mind," Shinji dared, "H-how would I even get to Kyoto?"  
He was feeling awkward confiding his feeling to Priss. He figured he'd only confide his feelings toward Ranma first before anyone else.  
"Well, I might be able to help you," Priss smiled.  
"Really? How?"  
Priss shrugged, "Well, I'm as you know, I'm on tour and doing concerts all round the country. Anyway, I'll be doing a concert in Kyoto a week and a half from now,"  
"Wow, really?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
"You can come on tour with me," Priss smiled.  
Shinji paced back and forth in front of the phone a few days after bumping in to Priss at the bookstore. It was only around three in the afternoon, only a short time since he and Emiko got back from the gym.  
He looked at the piece of paper in his hands, the one Sumi had given shortly before she left that had her home phone number. As he looked at it, he couldn't help but smile as he made himself realize that he really had a girl's phone number.  
He quickly composed himself. If he were to really go and pay her a visit, then that meant he needed to call her. How was he supposed to go about telling her?  
"Hi, guess what? I can come visit you next week," Shinji tried, "Can I stop by?"  
He shook his head.  
"Hey, Sumi. I found out that I'm going to be around your area next week and was wondering if I can stop by?" he tried a different approach.  
He shook his head again.  
"Yo, Sumi. I'm coming by next week. If you don't like it, tough," he even gave a try.  
Shinji burst out laughing. There was no way he could say something like that last one. However, that was probably the line Ranma would say verbatim.  
What happen if she doesn't want me to visit, Shinji wondered. What if she's busy? She said she interns at her dad's engineering company and works at her mom's restaurant. She might be too busy to see me.  
"C-carpe Diem," he said to himself, once again referring to the bastardization translation 'Seize the day'. If he didn't call, then he would never know. Perhaps she was expecting his call.  
Shinji realized he had to force himself out of that 'What if?' mentality and start thinking in a 'Why not?' mentality.  
He took several deep breaths. The best way to learn to swim is to jump in to the deep end of the pool. He would either sink or swim. It was better knowing that than to wonder if he would sink or swim.  
Before he had a chance to change his mind, Shinji picked up the phone and dialed the number the number on the piece of paper in his hands.  
As he heard the phone ringing, he felt the urge to hang up, too nervous to go through with it. "Hello?" came a woman's voice. "Um, h-hello?" Shinji responded nervously, knowing it was too late to change his mind. He couldn't tell whose voice it was. It wasn't Sumi's. However, he didn't know if it was her mom's voice.  
"May I help you?" she asked asked.  
"Um, i-is Sumi there?"  
"May I ask who's calling?"  
"S-Shinji. Shinji Ikari," he replied, "Um, I just wanted to call her to tell her that I-I might be able to visit next week,"  
"I'm sorry, but she's working at her father's business," the woman said, "She won't be back until six,"  
"Oh," Shinji seemed disappointed.  
"I'll relay the message," she said, "I'll have her call you back when she gets home. Does she have your number?"  
Shinji replied that Sumi most likely did have his number but he decided it was best that he give it just in case. He gave her his phone number and politely said goodbye. When he hung up, he felt a great sense of relief that the phone call was over.  
"Damn," Shinji sighed.  
He couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that he hadn't been able to talk to her.

Ssinefelt tired after she came home from work at around six-thirty that day. Although she was working at her father's engineering company and was sitting at a desk doing paper work, she felt just as tired as someone who do physical work.  
"Welcome back," the maid said with a warm smile, an elderly woman around sixty years old that worked for her parents for the past fifteen years. A live-in maid, she was worth her weight in gold.  
Sumi took off her shoes and entered in to the house, flopping down on the couch of the well furnished livingroom, "I'm beat,"  
"How was work?"  
"Tiring," she replied, "Even though I've been there for over two weeks, I'm still having trouble getting adjusted to working there. There's so much to keep track off,"  
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it," the maid smiled warmly, her smile reassuring.  
"Thanks,"  
"Sumi, dear, someone called for you," the maid said, producing a small piece of paper from her pocket.  
"Who?"  
"His name is Shinji Ikari," the maid replied, "He called shortly after three. He left his number,"  
Sumi blushed which prompted a smile from the maid, "S-Shinji called? Really?"  
"He said something about being able to visit next week,"

Shinji had just gotten home from his jogging when Sumi called. Although he didn't need to, he had begun jogging around four in the afternoon for a few miles. He was in amazing shape and believed that he needed to constantly work out to maintain it. Besides, he needed to improve not on his endurance for jogging but his speed.  
When he heard the phone ringing, his first reaction was to let the answering machine answer it. However, he happened to have checked his watch and noticed that it was shortly after six. The person on the other line said Sumi would be home around six. That might be her calling.  
Shinji ran in to the house, not bothering to take off his shoes. He moved his legs too fast for his feet to keep up as he ended tripping his own feet, slamming in to the small desk where the phone was. The desk fell over on top of Shinji after the receiver was knocked off the phone, hitting him on the top of the head in the process "Ow," he said, rubbing his head.  
He went about putting the deck back up and in to place. As he did so he picked up the phone receiver, "H-hello?"  
He listened, his heart racing as he thought of what to say. After a moment, he realized that the person on the other side wasn't Sumi like he had been anticipating.  
"No, I don't want no subscription to your magazine!" he said in frustration. Before he hung up the phone, he remembered to added, "And, put this number on your 'Do not call' list,"  
Shinji hung up the phone, feeling spent. Although he was annoyed about what had happened, he was glad that that particular magazine company would not be calling that number for at least ten years, the given time before a number on their 'Do no call' list can be called again.  
He smirked. He was glad that there were very few solicitors calling the house ever, Ranma and everyone else telling the soliciting company to put the number on their 'Do not call' list. Most people didn't know that.  
He also couldn't believe how great an answering machine was.  
The phone rang again. Figuring it was another solicitor, Shinji chose to let the answering machine answer it. However, he chose to listen to the recording and what the person had to say afterwards, most of them usually hanging up.  
After the forth ring, the answering machine activated.  
"Hello," the answering had a recording of Ranma's voice, "You've reached the home of Ranma Saotome, Akane Tendo, Shinji Ikari, Asuka Langley, and Rei Ayanami. Now you know who lives here so this is not an inadvertent mistake on your part. Anyway, if you are trying to solicit anything, this is no typical answering machine you're talking to. The number you have called has the ability to identify the number of any incoming calls as unmask masked numbers. Put this number on your 'Do not call' list. If you call this number again, and it is determined that you have called this number previously, you are under violation of the Telephone Consumers Act, and are subject to fines. If you're not calling to solicit something, please leave a message and a number and a time of when you called and we will be sure to get back to you,"  
Shinji snickered. He had to admit that that is probably one of the best answering machine messages ever thought up.  
"Um, h-hello, t-this is Sumi," came a meek voice, "This message is for Shinji. I just got back and got a message that you called and wanted to return your phone call. Anyway, when you get this message please-"  
Shinji quickly picked up the phone, "Sumi!"  
"S-Shinji?" she was surprised.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. It's me," Why am I still nodding, Shinji wondered. I'm on the phone. It's not like she can see me.  
"Um, t-that was a funny answering machine message," Sumi admitted, giggling a bit, hoping it would help calm her nerves. She felt very very nervous and couldn't believe she had mustered the courage to call Shinji.  
"T-thanks," Shinji said, wondering why he was accepting a compliment that should go to Ranma.  
"Um, I got your message that you called earlier today but I wasn't home then," she said, "I'm just returning your phone call,"  
"Oh yeah," Shinji said nervously, "Um, I called to tell you, um, that I think I can come v-visit,"  
"Really?" Sumi's voice was filled with surprise and happiness all of a sudden. Of course, Shinji couldn't tell since he was more used to being able to see a person's reaction face-to-face instead of over the phone.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
Damn, quit nodding like that, Shinji thought.  
"That's great," Sumi seemed sincerely happy to hear that, "When? When can you come visit?" She would love to have him come visit. Having only been home for a short while, she had grown to realized she missed talking to Shinji like she was used to back when they were in-between classes.  
"Um, Priss, you remember her?" he started off.  
"Of course," Sumi laughed, "How could I not remember Priss? How could anyone not remember someone so awesome like Priss?"  
Shinji gave a meek laugh, "Um, I guess. Anyway, I was talking to her earlier today and she says she's going to be doing a concert in Kyoto,"  
"I know," Sumi said, "I've already got the tickets. It's next week. I've got ticket for Alison, Sen, and myself,"  
"Um, cool," Shinji said, "Well, since she told me she's going to be there, I asked he if I can tag along with her there. She said okay,"  
"What?" Sumi's shrieked in shock, "Y-you're going to be touring with Priss!"  
"Um, n-not touring, no," Shinji said, "Just tagging along with her to her Kyoto concert,"  
"Wow, that's unbelievable,"  
"U-um, t-that way, I-I can visit," Shinji said, "T-that is, i-if you don't mind,"  
"Of course I don't mind," Sumi said, "It'd be great. We can all go to the concert together,"  
"Um," Shinji didn't know what to say. He didn't really want to go to the concert. It's not like he didn't like Priss' music. It's just that concerts were too crowded for his liking. It was not his kind of thing, much like dance clubs.  
"It'd be great," Sumi said, "After the concert, we can go to that dance club. I've yet to check it out since I got back,"  
"Um..."

Ranma was on the way down the stairs just as he saw Shinji hanging up the phone, this relieved look on the young man's face.  
He noticed that Shinji had his shoes on.  
"Hey man, does this house look like some house found in the States?" Ranma asked, "What if you stepped in dog shit on the way home?"  
"Um..." Shinji gave a meek reply. "Never mind that. You look happy," Ranma commented.  
"Um, i-it depends on what your answer is," Shinji gave a meek smile.  
"Oh?" Ranma perked an eyebrow.  
"I just got off the phone with Sumi, a classmate of mine," Shinji said.  
"You mean your girlfriend?" Ranma asked.  
Shinji blushed terribly, "S-she isn't my girlfriend,"  
Ranma smirked. Although he didn't know who she was or what she looked like, he figured Shinji and Emiko looked better together. Akane and Luna agreed, the three of them having found out a few weeks ago of Emiko's subconscious crush on Shinji.  
Ranma asked, "Is she hot?"  
"Ranma," Shinji said in disbelief.  
"What are you so upset about?" Ranma gave Shinji and odd look, "You some kinda girl? Dontcha know it's another guy's obligation to ask if the girl is hot within two to four questions after his guy friend mentions a girl?"  
Shinji said nothing.  
"What's she look like? Have I ever seen her? How about that?" Ranma asked.  
"Um, I don't think you've ever met her," Shinji replied, "However, I think you did see her. She was with me a few weeks ago, when you stopped by at school and saw those three guys surrounding me,"  
Ranma thought for a moment, "Oh. Her. I remember her. She's pretty,"  
"Thanks,"  
"What the heck you saying thanks for?" Ranma smirked, "I don't think it's because of you that she's pretty. It generally has to do with one's DNA,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "I didn't mean it like that,"  
"Well, what are you going to do? You're going to visit her?" Ranma asked, "When?"  
"Next week, hopefully," Shinji said, "She lives in Kyoto. Priss is gonna be doing a concert there next week. However, I dunno if you'd allow me the time off from teaching classes to go,"  
Ranma laughed, "You work one hour a day. You haven't even been working for a week and you're already asking for time off. Heh, I guess you're more of an engineer than you think,"  
"Oh. I guess I'll call Sumi and tell her I've got work,"  
Ranma shook his head, "No. Don't do that. It was just a comment. You're free to go. Take off as much time as you want," "R-really?"  
"Sure," Ranma said, "I only have you teach classes to help you get used to having people watching you. It's to help you out for when you have to step in to the ring in front of an audience. You're going to have to get used to it and doing something like teaching classes will help you greatly,"  
"I-I understand," Shinji said, "When I come back, I-I'll make up for it by teaching class for a whole week,"  
Ranma smirked.  
"All right. You said it, not me,"  
Shinji stopped in front of the gym where Linna Yamazaki worked as an aerobics instructor the never next day. It was morning, shortly after Shinji had finished teaching class but before he was expected to be at Makunouchi Gym.  
He felt nervous about visiting Sumi. He had managed to muster enough courage to call Sumi shortly after Ranma had said it was okay for him to take time off from teaching. Sumi had been excited and was looking forward to seeing him and going to the concert and dance hall with him.  
Unfortunately for him, it seemed like he had used up all of his courage making the phone call in the first place that he didn't have enough to tell her that he didn't want to go to the concert nor to a dance club.  
Since it looked like Meito and Alison and Sen were having a great time before the fight broke out to disrupt it, it had made Shinji wonder if he would have such fun. He wasn't totally against the idea of at least trying to find out what was so fun about it. It wasn't that he would actually dance. He merely wanted to know what was so fun about it. Linna liked dancing. He would ask her.  
The gym where Linna worked was a weightlifting gym that had also had an aerobics room attached to it. The people in the weightlifting portion of the gym were massive, even more massive than the giants that were bouncers in the dance club that night. When Shinji entered, it felt like a massive wave of testosterone enveloped him, the gym mostly full of giant men. Even the few women that were in there training were huge, much bigger than Shinji.  
Shinji couldn't help but feel very small and meek when compared to those people. However, he was grateful that the bodybuilders were working out on machines and equipment situated by the back of the gym, where all the heavy lifting equipment were. Having to walk by one of them and realizing just how large they were would make him feel even more puny.  
"Good morning," a young girl ask, smiling sweetly.  
"Um, h-hello," Shinji said. The counter girl looked to be younger than him but was very pretty. He couldn't help but wonder why the gym manager only hired pretty girls to work behind the counter. Perhaps it was to attract more male members, the aerobics portion of the gym attracting more than enough female members.  
"Are you here to join?" she asked, not recognizing Shinji. Shinji shook his head, "No. I'm here to see Linna Yamazaki. Is she here?"  
The girl regarded him for a moment.  
He could use a bit of muscle, she though as she regarded him for a moment. Since she liked very muscular and powerful-looking guys, Shinji looked a bit on the scrawny side. He had a nice well-built defined look, but not a muscular look. "Yes, she's in the middle of teaching a class," the girl said, looking at her watch, "It'll let out in fifteen minutes,"  
"Okay," he said, "Um, is it okay if I wait?"  
"Sure," she smiled.  
Shinji looked around and noticed a sitting bench nearby that was near the rack of dumbbells that line on mirrored-wall on the left side. He walked over there and sat down on it. Little did he know that he ended up sitting down on a flat bench where people usually did exercises like flat bench dumbbell presses and dumbbell flyes or any dumbbell exercises that required a flat bench. Since no one was using it, he had naturally assumed it was a bench to sit.  
After ten minutes or so of sitting there and waiting, Shinji started looking around.  
Nearby, he noticed a pair of seventy pound dumbbells lying about. He looked over on to the rack and noticed empty space on the rack where it was supposed to be placed, the dumbbells on the rack placed in ascending order of weight.  
"Please place weights back on to rack when finished," Shinji read a sign aloud.  
He looked around and noticed that no one was around. "I should place the weight back on the rack," he said.  
He got up off his seat and picked up both dumbbells without much effort, one in each hand.  
Just out of curiosity, he curled it a few times, wondering if seventy pounds was supposed to be heavy for him. He did it in the same motion that he remembered seeing Emiko doing it. She did such an exercise but with significantly smaller dumbbells. He had a bit of trouble doing it after several repetitions with each arm.  
"Um, you're not supposed to be lifting weights if you're not a member," a voice startled him. It was the girl that had been behind the counter. When she saw him curling the dumbbells, she wanted to tell him that he shouldn't be doing that.  
Shinji turned around, weights still in his hands, "S-sorry,"  
He quickly went about placing the dumbbells back on the rack in its proper place. As he did so, the girl noticed the weight he was lifting.  
What the hell, she thought in surprise. He just did alternate dumbbell curls with seventy pounds eight times with each arm! How did he manage to do that? He just curled half his weight per arm!  
"I didn't know I was supposed to do that," Shinji gave a meek smile, "I won't do that again,"  
"Um, it's n-no problem," the girl said, regarding him again, re-evaluating him again. She was surprised such a small compact body was that strong.  
Shinji looked past the girl and noticed Linna talking to a female friend, a fellow co-worker, as she and a huge group of women emerged from the door that lead to the aerobics room.  
"Ah, I see her," Shinji said to the girl.  
He walked past her and walked up to Linna and her friend.  
"Hey, Linna," he smiled. He bowed as he noticed Linna's friend stopping as well, "Hello,"  
"Shinji, what brings you here, what a pleasant surprise," Linna said, about to hug him but stopped when she realized she was sweaty from teaching aerobics class.  
"Whoa, yoggesre like 'em young, dontcha?" her friend commented with a smirk.  
"Ha ha," Linna retorted.  
He friend laughed as she excused herself and headed off to the locker room for a shower. "So, what can I help you with?" Linna smiled warmly.  
Shinji thought about exactly what to say for a moment.  
"C-can you show me how to d-dance?"

"Wow, you've changed quite a lot over the past several weeks," Linna commented as she and Shinji were in the now empty aerobics studio. "Um, t-thanks, I guess," Shinji said.  
"This Sumi person is that girl Priss mentioned at the dinner table?" Linna asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. She's the girl that Priss was teasing me about being my girlfriend,"  
"Is she?" she asked curiously, wondering what kind of girl Sumi was like. She knew Shinji seemed to like her, what with him constantly blushing like that. She wondered if this mystery girl liked Shinji.  
Shinji blushed, "N-no. She isn't my girlfriend,"  
"Do you like her?" Linna asked. Shinji continued to blush, unable to say anything.  
Linna smiled and even laughed, "Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me. There's no need to tell me anyway. Your silence tells me everything I need to know,"  
Shinji said, "Um, p-please don't tell anyway. They'll just tease me. I-I don't want it being brought up at Friday dinner like back then. It was so embarrassing,"  
"All right. I won't mention anything," Linna smiled.  
I'm glad Shinji likes someone, Linna thought. I was starting to worry he was never going to get a girlfriend. "So let me get this straight," Linna said, "When you saw some of your friends dancing, you noticed that they seemed to be really enjoying yourself. You want to learn to dance to see what's so fun about it? You also want to learn so, in case you and Sumi did dance?"  
Shinji nodded.  
"And you have one week to learn?" Linna smirked.  
Shinji nodded again.  
Linna laughed. After a few minutes, she composed herself, "I'm sorry. It's just that this is very amusing. Of all people in this world, I figure you'd be the last person to take an interest in something such as dancing. That's why it's still a shock for me every time you mention that you want to learn to dance. That's all,"  
"C-c-can you teach me?"  
Linna nodded, "Well, yes. However, there's no set way of dancing. You said you want to understand and learn how to dance like people in dance clubs. However, if you want to learn exactly how you do it, the best way to do is get comfortable with dancing,"  
"H-how do I do that?"  
Linna walked over and pressed a button on the sound system by the corner of the room. When dance music started playing, she approached Shinji, who stood there nervously.  
"First off, you need to loosen yourself," Linna said, "You're all tense,"  
"I-I don't think I can help myself," he gave a meek smile.  
Linna walked up very close to him. She placed both arms around his neck, intertwining her fingers behind his neck. When Shinji realized how close Linna was, he became very uncomfortable.  
"You have any idea how lucky a guy your are?" Linna smirked, "Most guys dream about being this close to me,"  
Shinji blushed terribly red as he stammered, "I-I-I'm s-s-sure t-they d-do,"  
Linna couldn't help but blush slightly. Although Shinji was very shy and meek about what he said, the fact that he tried to be nice was something very noticeable. It was the thought that counts.  
"You see how my hands are around your neck? This is generally how the girl will have her hands on you if you two go dancing to music like this," Linna said in an almost tutorial-like voice.  
"O-okay,"  
Linna took a step forward, having it so that her breasts were very close to his chest, her face close to his, one of the thighs of her legs almost pressed up against Shinji's groin while one of Shinji's thighs were pressed against her own.  
The closeness freaked Shinji out as he took a step back, breaking free from Linna.  
"I-I-I can't," Shinji said, visibly shaken.  
"Before you start dancing, you're going to have to get used to the closeness," Linna said.  
Shinji gulped, "I-I can't,"  
"Get over here!" Linna basically commanded him.  
Shinji quickly ran up to her, but stopping before they were in the licentious position. Unfortunately for Shinji, Linna stepped forward and got back in to that position, their thighs almost pressed against each other's groin, Linna's hands entwined behind the back of Shinji's neck.  
He stayed standing there, fighting back his nervousness. To Linna's surprise, Shinji didn't end up wanting to make a run for it. However, his body seemed to be shaking from nervousness.  
"You see this position?" Linna said, her warm breath felt brushing against his face, "This is the position you need to get used to. You also need to be used to physical contact,"  
"O-okay," Shinji stammered.  
Damn, Shinji smells nice, Linna thought. And cute to boot.

Shinji headed toward the gym.  
"Damn, I'm late," he looked at his watch while in full sprint.  
He saw Emiko waiting in front of the gym. He was surprised that she was still outside waiting for him. He figured she would had gone in over an hour ago, it being one.  
"Shinji," she said, her face showing that she was very happy to see him.  
Shinji, still in a full sprint, unable to slow down, ended up running right by her, almost slamming in to the mailbox that was located just in front of the gym. Luckily, he had managed to dodge it, coming to a halt after overshooting the entrance by a dozen feet.  
Had that been there all that time, Shinji wondered, blushing as he walked back toward Emiko.  
Emiko giggled. It seemed like he was in a real rush to get to the gym and hadn't thought about stopping.  
"I'm so sorry I'm late," Shinji said apologetically.  
"It's all right," Emiko smiled warmly, glad to see him, "Um, what took you so long?"  
"Oh, I saw Linna," Shinji said, feeling no need to lie. "L-Linna, what for?" Emiko asked, a bit curious.  
"I was talking to her," Shinji answered, "I stopped by her work before I came here. Keep in mind that I rarely see her and the last time I did was last Friday during dinner. We were just talking about nothing in particular and I kinda lost track of time,"  
"Oh," she said, feeling a bit better. People lose track of time all the time. But then again, she had never lost track of time in terms of her needing to be at the gym for when Shinji would show up after school when he was in school.  
"C'mon, let's go in," Shinji said, smiling nervously.  
"Okay," Emiko smiled.  
Linna said my homework is to perform some form of physical contact at least once a day with a girl to get me used to being close to a girl, Shinji thought. I know if I do something like with a random stranger, I'll get slapped. Emiko is a friend so she might not mind. However, I can't tell her that I'm doing so because it was my homework. I don't want to hurt her feelings. I hope she don't slap me.  
Shinji opened the door for Emiko. As Emiko entered, Shinji forced himself to press his hand by the small of Emiko's back, as if guiding her.  
Emiko's eyes widened in surprise as she felt Shinji's hand on the small of her back. She didn't know what to say. She had never been touched before like that. Wasn't that some form of friendly gesture? H-he did that inadvertently, Emiko thought. It was probably just a mistake.  
Emiko felt a bit sad. She was pathetic for getting so affected by a mistake such as Shinji's hand brushing across her back.  
To Shinji's surprise, Emiko didn't do anything. She didn't even acknowledge that she had even been touched. Shinji sighed in relief. Thank goodness she didn't slap me.

new stuff 9/17

Shinji and Oki circled one another in the ring that day, both tired and invigorated from doing their respective training before they sparred.  
Shinji started getting comfortable with doing sparring sessions against Oki. Although he could not beat the young man, no matter how hard he tried, he found himself constantly improving. It had been determined that Shinji's and Oki's fighting styles were completely different, Shinji and in-fighter while Oki and out-fighter. Shinji was more of a close-ranged fighter, usually dealing within jab range of his opponent. Oki, on the other hand, was used to being a far-ranged fighter, using his speed and very impressive footwork to stay keep at a certain distance, dashing in and attacking before back dashing to safety.  
When Oki started fighting seriously, he started showing just how fast a fighter he was, able to land two to three blows on Shinji before he is even able to realize that he had been even hit with the first punch.  
Oki had noticed that Shinji had a weakness, the fact that he had trouble dealing with feints, and exploited it to the fullest. It was the reason why Oki was able to hit Shinji so easily. However, because Ranma had started incorporating feints in his and Shinji's own sparring matches, Shinji had started catching on really quickly.  
Unfortunately, even though Shinji was able to catch on, he still found it very difficult to do anything about it, Oki simply that fast. The fact that Oki was very light allowed him to move at a very fast speed.  
As hard as it was, over the course of the few days sparring against him, Shinji went from not landing a single punch to actually landing a few punches every here and there.  
"It's a real pain trying to get close to you, but less hit you, y'know," Shinji commented, smirking.  
"Hey, you can hit me. What are you complaining about? You went from not being able to hit me once to being able to hit me several times over the course of a few days," Oki said, still smarting from the jab that had landed.  
Oki could not take punches. Shinji outweighed him by quite a bit, somewhere around twenty or more pounds. Oki, only used to fighting people around his own bodyweight, actually had a very strong punch compared so someone his size and weight. However, a punch against someone like Shinji, much heavier and powerful than himself, his punches weren't quite as effective as against someone his own size.  
Shinji dashed in, needing to get close. Unfortunately, Oki landed two quick jabs before he quickly back-dashed to a safe distance. Shinji was back to square one. The only difference now was that his cheek is stinging.  
"It's obviously you know my weakness," Shinji said, "I can't do well against feints, at least not yet. Since you know my weakness, how about you let me know your weakness?"  
Oki laughed.  
Shinji dashed in for an attack. Oki quickly landed two more jabs before back-  
dashing away.  
Shinji was back to square one once again, both cheeks now swinging.  
"What kinda tactic is that?" Oki said, "Ain't that cheap?"  
"Cheap was when you kneed me in the ribs yesterday when I clinched ya like Ippo had taught me to clinch," Shinji said, smirking while narrowing his eyes.  
Oki gave a meek smile, "Sorry about that. My kickboxing training kicked in when that happens,"  
"Hey, you just made a pun," Shinji laughed.  
Oki, realizing that Shinji was right and that that was a pun, started laughing.  
"Gotcha!" Shinji grinned, dashing in.  
Oki sidestepped, sticking his foot out, tripping Shinji.  
Shinji ended up stumbling forward, unable to keep his balance, where he ended up falling through the ropes and landed on the outside of the ring.  
As he lay on the floor, he turned around so that he was on his back looking up toward the ceiling. He noted that the rafters supporting the roof of the gym looked fairly old. Shinji laughed. He remembered being in such a position in the dojo over a month ago, after a sparring session against Ranma. What was even more funny was that this was the second time he fell through the ropes and outside the ring, probably two times more than anyone else on the planet.  
"What's so funny?" Oki asked, smirking, his forearms resting on the top rope as he looked down toward Shinji.  
"It seems like 'Stumble' really is a fitting nickname for me," Shinji laughed.  
Oki laughed.  
Shinji continued to laugh as he got back up in to his feet.  
He climbed back in to the ring, a big smile on his face.  
It's nice having news friends.

Shinji was smiling as he and Emiko walked home from the gym together.  
"You seem happy," Emiko commented, smiling a bit.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, I guess. I'm happy because I'm really starting to see improvement in myself,"  
"I've noticed that all along," Emiko commented.  
"R-really?" Shinji was surprised, "I didn't even realize that you noticed,"  
He really didn't know that she noticed. This was a first. She never indicated that she had noticed that he was improving.  
Emiko blushed ever-so-slightly at the comment.  
"Didja see my sparring match against Oki?" Shinji asked.  
"You mean when you fell out of the ring?" Emiko dared to crack a joke, something she probably never did intentionally before now. Shinji gave a meek laugh as he also chuckled, "Y-you saw that, huh?"  
Emiko didn't really know what she should do. Was she to laugh with him? Was she laughing at her joke or laughing at himself? If he was laughing at the joke, then she should be able to laugh with him. If he was laughing at himself, then it might hurt his feelings if she laughed. She chose to only give a slightly smile.  
"Well, I was kinda referring to after I got back in to ring," Shinji said.  
"What about it?"  
"I managed to knock Oki down once," Shinji smiled proudly.  
Emiko gave him an odd look. What was there to be so happy about something like that?  
"When I first sparred him a few days ago, I couldn't even touch him," Shinji commented, "After a couple of days, I managed to start hitting him. And now, I managed to knock him down,"  
"But he still beat you," Emiko said, not really knowing why he was still so happy. Oki won and he lost. Shinji smiled, "I'm starting to really notice an improvement in my boxing. Sure, I'm still losing to him, but at the rate I got, I'll be able to beat him in a couple of weeks, if that,"  
"I guess you have a point," she said.  
Shinji and Emiko went in to the deli and got themselves their usual orders. "You kids come in here a lot," the person behind the counter said.  
"We get stop by here on our way home from Makunouchi Gym," Shinji said confidently, feeling that this is a good opportunity to get used to talking to stranger.  
"Makunouchi Gym, huh? You're both boxers?" the man asked.  
Shinji was a bit nervous but he dared to take the opportunity to do physical contact once again.  
He reluctantly placed a hand on Emiko's shoulder, "I'm training to become a boxer. She's just there training,"  
Emiko blushed, ever-aware of Shinji's hand on her shoulder. She was sure Shinji was totally unaware that he had even placed his hand on her shoulder. Ranma did that, inadvertently touching a person, a harmless gesture. Luna did that a lot with Ranma, always playfully punching him in the arm. This must be Shinji's version of that, a casual hand on her shoulder or on the small of her back.  
"I'm Shinji," Shinji said, remembering Ranma mentioning that it was better to introduce oneself instead of not, "This is Emiko,"  
"Hi," the man said, "I'm Wei,"  
"It's nice to meetcha, Wei," Shinji said, feeling bad he never introduced himself sooner. However, since they never really talked, the opportunity never presented itself. What made Shinji a bit angry at himself was that he had waited for such an opportunity rather than make it himself, initiating a conversation instead.  
"Well, I figured it was something like that," Wei commented, "It kinda makes sense since you always seem to be eating tomatoes,"  
"Speaking of which, can I have two of 'em now?" Shinji asked, "My appetite's growing and one isn't enough,"  
Wei laughed, "No problem,"  
They talked for a few minutes before a few customers came in, Wei realizing that he needed to finish preparing Emiko's sandwich so he could tend to the customers.  
When Shinji was about to pay for the food, Wei shook his head.  
"Don't worry about it. On the house," Wei smiled to Shinji and Emiko, "You two are good customers. I'm finally glad to know your names,"  
"Thanks," Shinji smiled Emiko and Shinji said their goodbyes and left the deli.  
It's so much better being outgoing, Shinji thought.  
The two of them sat down on the bench in front of the deli and ate their food in relative peace and quiet, indulging in conversation. They talked about nothing in particular.  
When they were done, they got up and began to head home.  
"Wait," Shinji said.  
"What's the matter?" Emiko asked.  
"Can we stop by the bookstore?" Shinji asked, "I'd like to see if there are any new boxing magazines in. Do you mind?"  
"I don't mind," she said, a bit happy about it. It meant that they would be out longer. Over the past couple of weeks, Emiko had come to realize that she really liked Shinji's company and wouldn't mind spending more time with him. She enjoyed his company. Together, the two of them went in to the bookstore, Shinji heading for the magazine racks, Emiko following closely behind.  
"What kinda books to you like?" Shinji asked her as he searched through the magazines.  
"I-I'm not too sure," she said, "I-I've never really read any magazines so I really wouldn't know,"  
Shinji picked up a martial arts magazine and handed it to her, "How about this? Might this interest you?"  
She took the magazine from him and looked at the cover. It showed a picture of a young girl around her age doing a high kick. "Women in martial arts," Emiko read a small caption on the bottom left of the cover. That interested her immediately as she opened the magazine and began to leaf through it.  
When she stopped at a page and began to read the article, Shinji walked over and stood next to her, his head very close to hers, curious as to what article she was reading.  
Emiko blushed.  
she suddenly realized Shinji was so close that she could smell the shampoo he had used when he had showered back at the gym. She held her breath, not really knowing what to do. Her heart suddenly started beating quickly, at least quicker than usual.  
Shinji seemed to lose interest and left her and walked over to the magazine rack again, looking for some new boxing magazines.  
Emiko stole glances toward Shinji as he looked about the magazine racks, blushing when she caught herself actually looking at his backside when he bent over to pick up a magazine.  
She couldn't help but notice how lean Shinji's body had gotten. He had grown only slightly in size, his build a bit more than a couple of months ago. The one thing she did notice was that running seemed to make his legs very lean and his backside tight.  
What the heck is wrong with me, she thought. I'm such a pervert! I looked at Shinji's butt!  
She quickly shook the cobwebs from her head and resumed reading.  
Shinji, totally unaware of Emiko still stealing glances at him, went about his business. When he saw a new boxing magazine, he grabbed it up quickly like it was the last one, even though there were around a dozen of the same ones right behind it.  
"Yes!" Shinji said, smiling as he turned toward Emiko, "A new magazine came in!"  
"T-that's good to hear," she said, blushing.  
D-did he see me staring, Emiko thought, flushing.  
"You okay?" Shinji asked curiously.  
He walked over to where she was and looked at the magazine in her hands, figuring it was a picture in the magazine that had caused it. He noticed Emiko seemed to be flushed fairly often, most likely because she was still na ve to this world and was embarrassed about being so.  
"How women can fight off a bear hug," Shinji said, reading the title of the article. He glanced at pictures. It had four pictures on the page and a detailed explanation of what was going on. The first picture showed of a man giving a girl a bear hug from the front. The next picture showed a picture of the girl biting the man in the nose. The third picture was of her kneeing the man in the groin while still being held. The final picture showed the girl, now on the ground, kneeing the guy in face since he was keeled over.  
Shinji laughed, "What's so embarrassing about this move? It works,"  
Emiko, realizing that it seemed Shinji was unaware of why she was really blushing, said, "Um, I-I guess so. I-it's just the biting of the nose seemed a bit extreme. T-that's all,"  
"You've got a point," Shinji shrugged.  
Emiko gave a meek laugh.  
"Well, I've found what I was looking for," Shinji said, "Are you ready to go?"  
Emiko wanted to tell him no, because she wanted to stay and read the other article that was on the other page, not the one about the bear hug.  
Shinji smiled, reaching out and taking the martial arts magazine out of Emiko's hands, "C'mon, let's go,"  
"O-okay," she said meekly. When she noticed Shinji wasn't putting her magazine back, she asked, "Um, aren't you going to put it back?" Shinji smiled, "Whatever for? I'm going to buy you this,"  
"Y-you are?" she was very surprised.  
"Sure," he smiled warmly, "It's clear that you wanna read it so I have no problem buying it for you,"  
"T-thanks," she said, touched by the gesture.

Ranma entered the same bookstore a few days after when Shinji and Emiko had been last there. He walked over to the magazine rack, hoping to find some magazines on anime.  
After a minute of searching, he was happily surprised to find that there were four new anime magazines in. He snatched them up quickly, a big smile on his face.  
He glanced around to see if there were more anime magazines. After a bit of searching, his eyes rested on a car magazine. Curious, he picked it up and began leafing through it.  
He didn't know if it was a good magazine, him knowing nothing about cars.  
I should buy a car for Rei and Asuka and Shinji, Ranma thought. All three of them did really well this year in school and I should buy 'em one as a present for doing good job.  
Ranma glanced toward the side where he caught sight of the same gorgeous woman with long flowing blond hair that he had bumped in to in the same bookstore. It had been a while ago when he had stopped by to talk to Shinji, having spotted him through the window.  
The first thing he noticed about the woman was that she was wearing a pair of shades.  
The woman, sensing staring eyes on her, turned her attention toward Ranma.  
Her eyes widened from behind her shades when she recognized the man. It was that gorgeous man she had talked to a while back.  
"Hey, you look familiar," Ranma commented. After a moment, he shrugged, "Ah, who really cares if I recognize you or not,"  
He returned to looking at the magazines.  
"I remember you," she said, "Your name is Ranma,"  
"How the heck do you know me?" he narrowed his eyes toward her suspiciously.  
The woman took them off, revealing beautiful blue eyes, "Now do you recognize me?"  
"Nope," he replied, unimpressed.  
She a bit surprised at just how clueless that man could be. "I'm Melinda," she said.  
"Like that helps," Ranma said, "I meet so many girls every day. You need to kinda narrow it down for me,"  
The woman opened her mouth but nothing came out, shocked at the comment. She was also shocked that he didn't remember someone like her. No one had not remembered her. Her beauty made her stick out like a sore thumb.  
"I'm Melinda, I was here in this bookstore a few weeks ago when you and, um, what was his name?" she began, "Shinji, that's it, Shinji. When you came in to talk to your friend, Shinji," Melinda was surprised she remembered that young man's name. She didn't even know how she remember it. She was so used to so many guy's introducing themselves toward her than she never bothered remembering names anymore, not unless something merited her remembering. "Last week?" Ranma said, scratching his head, "I don't even remember what I ate this morning. How the heck am I supposed to remember something like that?"  
Melinda laughed.  
Ranma gave a meek smile. A girl growing to like him usually started with him accidentally making them laugh. He needed to be more tactless. That way, she would not like him.  
"Oh, I remember you," he said, finally remembering, "You're Melinda,"  
"Um, yes, that's what I just said," she smirked.  
"Oh," he said, "Well, I guess I wasn't paying much attention when you said your name,"  
She laughed again.  
What the fuck, Ranma thought. I'm not trying to make you laugh! I need to be more tactless! I must!  
"I see you didn't take my advice," he said, gesturing toward the magazine in her hands, "That magazine sucks,"  
The woman blushed, "Um, actually, this is the last photo shoot with the magazine. I took your words in to consideration that day and actually checked through the magazine and realized that it really wasn't all that great. However, since I was under contract to do the next month's magazine, the magazine I have here in my hands, I had to do it. This month's photo shoot was my last one with this magazine. Thanks, I appreciate your help,"  
"Huh?" Ranma was a bit shocked, "Y-you mean I inadvertently helped you?"  
She smiled, "Yes, you did. And I thank you,"  
"Um, okay, whatever," he shrugged, turning back to his magazine. He wanted to read his anime magazines.  
The woman was silent for a moment, feeling a bit nervous.  
"Um, I'd like to thank you," she said after a short while.  
"You did," he said, not looking up. "No, not like that," she said, "I'd like to take you out to dinner, as a way of thanks,"  
"Nope," Ranma said.  
What the fuck, Ranma thought. How do I get in to these goddamn situations!  
"Why not?" she asked.  
Ranma, believing he had thought of the best lie to get out of such an awkward situation, said, "I was hurt very badly by a woman. I believe I can never grow to trust them or open myself up to them," Now she'll definitely leave me alone, Ranma thought.  
Melinda, like any woman, upon hearing such words, realized that it was her obligation to help Ranma out, that she would be the one show him that not all women are like the one that hurt him terribly so.  
Ranma glanced toward the woman, figuring she would understand and graciously leave him but, was absolutely shocked when he saw that she had this almost starry-eyed look on her face.  
"Hey, why the hell are y'looking at me like that?" Ranma asked, a bit freaked out.  
"I-I'm so sorry to hear what happened to you," she said in a soft voice, wanting to embrace the man and show him that this world wasn't a cold and heartless one.  
Ranma, realizing that he had just gotten himself in to and even worse position than before, held his a finger up.  
"Hold up," Ranma said.  
"What?" she asked.  
"I just realized something," he commented.  
"Realized what?" "I just realized that my legs work," Ranma said.  
Ranma quickly placed the anime magazines back on the rack and ran out of the bookstore.

Ranma was on his way back home, figuring he'd go buy his anime magazines later. At the moment, he was grateful to have escaped the bookstore, as if he had just escaped with his life.  
"Damn, I want my anime magazines," Ranma almost whined.  
As he walked down the street, he happened to notice Emiko as she was walking down the street, heading for home as well.  
"Ooh, I can ask her to buy them for me, in case that woman is still in there," Ranma said, quickly running forward to catch up to her.  
Emiko was a bit distracted, happy and smiling as she walked down the street, a book held close to her chest.  
"Hey, Emiko," Ranma surprised her, grabbing her from behind and picking her up in his arms and throwing her up a short distance before having her land back up in his arms again.  
Emiko squeaked in surprise. To Ranma's surprise, she didn't seem to react like her usual self, twisting in the air and most likely landing on his face before rebounding off it and landing on her feet.  
"Whoa, I figure you'dve done something else," Ranma smirked, putting her back down to her feet.  
He looked down at his feet where he caught sight of a book that Emiko seemed to have accidentally dropped when he threw her up in to the air, the book landing on its cover.  
"What's this?" he smirked, picking up the book.  
Emiko, realizing that Ranma would see the title of the book if he picked it up and turned it around, quickly rushed forward and grabbed the book before he could, holding it right by her chest, giving Ranma a defiant look. "Whoa," Ranma was taken aback by the icy glare Emiko was giving him, "I was merely curious as to what it was,"  
"Well you're not going to see it," Emiko spat toward him as if very angry at him.  
Ranma smirked. He reached a hand out and closed his hand over the book.  
Emiko tried to pull the book away but his grasp but found his grip unyielding and her strength lacking. He didn't pull the book away but merely held it, never bothering to turn it around to look at the title of the book.  
"Let go, Ranma!" she said, finding herself nearing the brink of tears for some odd reason.  
The desperate look in her face made him realize he had gone too far.  
Ranma let go of the book, not wanting to see Emiko start crying for whatever reason was causing her to cry.  
Unfortunately, Emiko had been continuously trying to pull away and ended up falling backwards when he let go. Luckily for her, Ranma's reflexes were lightning quick as he quickly dashed forward and grabbed her before she ended up hitting the ground and hurt herself.  
"You okay?" he asked, helping her to her feet.  
Emiko was wiping a tear from her eyes, one of her books still snugly on the book, a futile thing to do since if Ranma really wanted to get a hold of the book, he could.  
"Whatcha doing here?" he asked, feeling really bad about himself. He couldn't stand the sight of seeing a girl cry.  
"N-none of your business," she tried to say firmly. She didn't know what the heck was wrong with her. For the past few weeks she had been all weird and her feelings had been all jumbled up. She was feeling emotions that she didn't even know what it meant. Also, why was she all emotional all of a sudden? Why was she so embarrassed about Ranma finding out the relationship book she had picked up at the bookstore just a short while ago? Having been there to buy some martial arts magazines for herself, she had found a 'How-to' book about relationships and had felt compelled to pick it up. However, even if that was true, she wanted no one, Ranma especially, to know about the book.  
"Why dontcha come clean?" Ranma said, his voice soft and almost reassuringly calm.  
"C-come clean? A-about what?" she asked, both her arms wrapping around the book again.  
Ranma placed a hand on Emiko's shoulders and gave it a gentle squeeze. Oddly, for a girl unused to physical contact, she didn't felt anything from the gesture. I didn't make her heart skip a beat like the other day, in the deli when Shinji had done the same gesture. Perhaps it was because it wasn't Shinji's hand that it was on her shoulder.  
"Nevermind, then," Ranma smiled, "I won't force you to tell me. You can talk to me about it when you feel up to it,"  
With that said, Ranma headed back to the house.

"Hey, Shinji," the counter girl smiled warmly at Shinji. "Morning, Miri," Shinji said, unaware of the fond look he was getting from the girl as he bowed to her. Almost a week had passed since when he first stopped by to talk to Linna. He had come every day since then. It was an early Saturday morning and Shinji was expected to meet up with Priss at her apartment two hours from now, just around noon. However, in the meanwhile, he had a good two hours to kill.  
"Looking good," the girl smiled.  
Shinji blushed, still not used to receiving compliments, "T-thanks,"  
"Linna here?" he asked.  
The girl smirked, "It's a weekend. She doesn't work over the weekend,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Gee, I didn't realize that,"  
"Ah, Shinji, what brings you here?" Linna's co-worker emerged from the aerobics room, a woman younger than Linna and in just as good a shape as her. She had long brown hair and was clad in rather revealing aerobics attire.  
"Morning, Kinima," Shinji approached her and bowed politely.  
"I came to ask her, um, for more dancing lessons," Shinji blushed a bit. He knew Kinima knew of his and Linna's private lessons. She had walked it a few times when Shinji had been attempting to dance.  
"Well, she isn't here," Kinima replied.  
"I know. Miri told me," he nodded.  
"Um, if you want, I can teach you," she smiled, flushing slightly. She had to admit that Shinji was cute and would probably find him attractive if he weren't so young. Since Shinji was Linna's friend, then that meant he was Kinima's friend.  
Shinji blushed, "N-n-no. I-I can't,"  
"It's no problem," she said, "I'm free for the next hour and a half before the next class begins,"  
I shouldn't let this opportunity pass me by, Shinji thought. Although Linna did say I was getting better, I still had a long way to go "Um, well, I guess so," Shinji said, not really knowing what he was getting himself in to. He barely knew Kinima. All he knew was that she was Linna's good friend and that they worked together. There had been two occasions when she had stayed around and watched to help him out. Unfortunately, her presence was more of a distraction that anything else and Linna had told her to leave on both occasions.  
"All right," Kinima smiled, "Let's get started,"  
"What do you think you're doing?" Shinji heard Linna's voice from behind him.  
Shinji turned around and was surprised to see Linna, "Linna, you're here,"  
"I just wanted to help him out," the friend said, shrugging her shoulders, "There's no harm in that," "I'm sure," Linna smirked wryly.  
"Whoa, a-are you two fighting over me?" Shinji dared to ask. He didn't even know why he said that. That was something Ranma would definitely say, not something he would say. However, curiosity got the better of him.  
Both females looked at Shinji.  
A moment later, they both burst out laughing.  
"You're funny, Shinji. Don't ever change," Linna laughed, forced to wipe the tears from her eyes from so much laughing.  
The comment had confused him.  
Did people want him to change or not?

Shinji crossed the lobby of a large hotel at around noon.  
Carrying with him was a small bag that contained some toiletries. Since he was only going to be going away for one day, there was no need for him to bring a pair of clothes. The only thing he did need to change was his underwear but he had that solved by deciding he would just flip it inside-out.  
He went to the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. He stood there for several moment before he realize the elevator door wasn't closing.  
"What the?" he wondered aloud, pressing the button a few times.  
After a moment he realized he needed to use that key Priss gave him yesterday to enable the elevator to go to the top floor, Priss' penthouse.  
He took the key out and placed it in the only keyhole he saw and turned it. When the door closed, he smiled.  
When the door opened again, he stepped out in to the hallway, looking to his left and right. He noticed that there was a window that overlooked MegaTokyo on the right and choose to gaze out it and be awed at the view. "I must be on, like, the fiftieth floor or something," Shinji wondered aloud. He turned around and headed down the hallway where he saw two giant guys standing in front of a lone door at the end of the hallway.  
Shinji took several nervous breaths as he approached the two of them. He recognized both of them as two of the four body guards that he saw about a week and a half ago at the bookstore.  
"Um, Priss is here to see me," Shinji said, looking at his watch. He was a bit late. Perhaps it was best that he didn't stop to look out the window.  
"You were expected at twelve," the man narrowed his eyes on Shinji, a bit annoyed that the young man had actually chosen to look out a window instead of showing up at time. The man had watched Shinji emerge from the elevator and actually turn to looking out the window instead of showing up on time.  
It annoyed the man that Shinji had such disregard about being punctual, especially when it had to deal with his boss.  
The man, given a task, could do nothing as he gritted his teeth and allowed Shinji to enter.  
"Thanks," Shinji said politely as he entered.  
Inside, Shinji wandered around the extravagantly furnished living room of the penthouse.  
"Priss? I'm here," he called out to her, looking about. He noticed that she wasn't in the living room. He cross the living room and to the left door where her bedroom was.  
He knocked on the door, "Priss, you in there?"  
After a moment of no answered, he excused himself and opened the door, entering.  
"Priss?" he called out, entering.  
So this is Priss' room, huh, Shinji thought to himself. He walked over to where the giant king sized bed was. Laid out on the bed was a jumpsuit that she usually wore when riding bike. Next to that was a pair of jeans and a short sleeved t-shirt. His nose almost started bleeding when he saw a nice pair of black lacy panties laid out right next to the clothes.  
"W-whoa," he said, "I didn't know she wears these kinda things.  
Shinji approached the pair of panties and picked it up. It was cotton.  
"What are you doing here?" he heard Priss' voice.  
Shinji quickly shoved the panties in his pocket and turned around to face her. As if the sight of Priss' panties weren't enough to get him excited, the sight of a fully nude Priss was more than enough.  
His jaw dropped as he noticed Priss as she stood by the doorway that led to her bathroom. She was busy drying her hair with the only towel she had.  
"S-s-sorry," Shinji stammered, quickly bringing his hands down to cover the front of his pants, his lower regions seemingly having a mind of its own.  
Priss smirked. I've still got it, she thought. She couldn't help but feel sexy at the realization that she was able to elicit such a response from the young man.  
She walked forward toward Shinji, not bothering to cover herself. Although over twice Shinji's age, she had the body of a healthy twenty year old, all due to her dedication to working out and a healthy diet.  
"W-w-what are you d-doing?" Shinji stammered, taking a step back as he saw Priss walking toward him. This scared the hell out of him. He was going to get the beat-down of the century.  
He brought his hands up to protect his face but realized that it left the front of his pants exposed. He quickly brought both hands down to cover the front of his pants. However, that left his face exposed. When he saw one of Priss' hand reach out as if to punch him where no man should be punched, he grabbed it, the hand that is.  
This surprised Priss, whom had merely wanted to retrieve the panties she saw Shinji stuff in to his pocket a second ago. She had only wanted to tease him, never really intending to punish him for accidentally seeing her naked.  
Priss, surprised from Shinji suddenly grabbing her arm, ended up tripping over how own feet, falling forward in the process, right in to Shinji. She ended up falling to the floor, accidentally grabbing his manhood in the process, causing him much pain as he ended up falling to the floor on top of her.  
"Oh my god!" Priss gasped as she looked down at her hand and noticed that Shinji's manhood was still in her hands. She quickly released her hold, suddenly realizing what she had done.  
Shinji crawled up in to a fetal position, both hands cupping his crotch.  
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!"  
"I-It's probably never going to work," Shinji muttered to himself, a pack of ice on his crotch area as he sat by the foot of Priss' bed.  
"I said I'm sorry," Priss blushed, now fully dressed in he clothes sans jumpsuit.  
She noticed Shinji pull the front of his pants forward and looking down to inspect himself, to see if the swelling had gone down, not the swelling that had occurred before the incident. She couldn't help but want to take a peek.  
Priss thought, are all guys Shinji's age that young that...hard? It felt a bit like the throttle to my bike. That's very arousing. Argh! What the hell am I thinking! I'm sick and perverted!  
Shinji looked up and noticed Priss looked in his direction. When Priss noticed that he was looking at her, she blushed at quickly turned her attention toward something else, anything.  
She spotted the bag of toiletries Shinji had placed on the desk by the bedroom door.  
"Is that yours?" she asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
She checked out the bag and noticed that it contained a toothbrush, an almost-  
finished tube of toothpaste, some dental floss, and one pair of socks.  
"Um, where's your other stuff?" Priss asked.  
"What do you mean?" he asked, "It's all in there,"  
"All I see are some toiletries and a pair of socks," she commented.  
"That's what I brought, why?" he asked, confused.  
"Didn't you bring a change of clothes?" she asked, remembering clearly that she told him to bring an extra pair of clothes.  
Shinji nodded, "I did. I brought an extra pair of socks,"  
"Where's there rest? Like pants and shirt and such?" she asked, confused.  
"It's only for a day, the only thing I plan on changing is my socks," he said, "It's pretty gross if you don't change your socks,"  
"Um, what about your boxers or such?" she asked.  
"I don't plan on changing them," he stated.  
"How can you choose to change your socks and not your underwear?" she asked, very confused.  
"I'll change boxer," Shinji replied.  
"How, I don't see an extra pair in here?" she asked.  
"I'll just flip 'em," he said, "All guys do that. After that, we flip it back. That's why we can stretch three pairs of boxers out about two wee oneActually, more like a month,"  
"Oh my god, I think you just told me a little more information than I needed to know,"  
Shinji looked up a the giant tour that had 'Priss and the Replicants' logo written across its side in bold red and blue letters. He couldn't help but notice just how big the bus was.  
He gulped. The trip from MegaTokyo to Kyoto was a little over three hundred miles one way. That meant the trip would be somewhere around five hours, perhaps a bit shorter provided they didn't stop at any stops. "It's a nice bus," Priss commented, dressing in her motorcycle-riding jumpsuit, approached him. "I agree," Shinji nodded.  
Priss walked over to where her bike was which was behind the bus. She hopped on to the bike.  
"How long's the trip going to take?" he asked.  
"It takes the bus around four and a half hours," she replied, "However, that doesn't really matter,"  
"Huh? What do you mean?" he asked.  
Priss smirked, throwing Shinji the spare passenger helmet, "We're not going by bus. We're going by bike,"  
"What?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
Priss smirked, "What, did I forget to mention that?"  
"Yes!"  
"Are you sure?" she asked innocently.  
"I'm sure. I doubt I would forget something as important as my having to go to Kyoto on bike with you," Shinji said, eyeing her critically.  
"Sorry, I guess I forgot to add in that detail,"  
Priss was pulled over at the side of the road. Shinji and she were standing by either side of the bike.  
"Just listen to what I tell you," she said, gesturing toward her bike, "You use the clutch, which is this left handle here. You shift gears using your left foot here. You use the brakes using the left handle or your right foot, depending one if you want to use the front or rear brakes. Last but not least, the throttle here is this handle where you turn like this,"  
"N-no! I-I can't!" Shinji shook his head emphatically.  
"Hey, you pilot EVAs," Priss commented, "This is a motorcycle. I'm sure it's much much easier than piloting something like that,"  
Shinji became silent. Piloting EVAs was part of his past, something he preferred to forget. Priss was silent for a moment, trying to think of words of encouragement to say. The comment she made suddenly made her realize just what kind of young man Shinji was. He had actually accomplished more things than she. The guy piloted EVAs while she wore hardsuits. He fought Angels while she fought Boomers. In overall scale of what they had done, Shinji had actually done more.  
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts, "Look, it's not that hard. Knowledge of something like this,"  
"No!" Shinji said firmly, "It reminds me of piloting. I want nothing to do with piloting,"  
"Why not?" she asked, always curious about that. She figured he would be proud of something like that.  
"I piloted EVAs because I was a mere puppet," he stated, "I don't want to be reminded of that,"  
Priss sighed, "Fine. Forget I asked. I didn't know it would dig up bad memories,"  
"It's no problem," he smiled slightly, "I know you mean well though,"  
Priss hopped back on the bike.  
"All right, hop back on,"  
Shinji's knees were shaking as he hopped off Priss' bike and took of his helmet.  
He looked at his watch. It was only a little past two in the afternoon. They had left at around twelve-thirty, indicating that they had only been on the road for about an hour and a half.  
"Where are we?" Shinji asked, looking about. He noticed they had stopped in front of a giant hotel.  
"Where else, Kyoto," Priss smiled, removing her helmet.  
"What?" Shinji gasped.  
Priss nodded, "Yeah, we covered over three hundred miles in about one and a half hours. We made pretty good time,"  
"God, that means you averaged close to two hundred miles on the way here!" Shinji did a quick calculation in his head.  
She nodded, grinning, "Right. Was it scary?"  
"Of course," Shinji said, "What if we fell going at that speed?"  
"We'd be screwed," Priss smirked.  
Shinji became silent.  
"Look, nothing happened," she commented, "That's what matters,"  
"Man, two hundred miles per hour average, huh?" Shinji was awed, "It sure didn't feel like it,"  
"I know," Priss smiled, "The aerodynamics of this bike is amazing. Mackie's an engineering genius and he designed this bike, engine and everything,"  
"How fast can this bike go?" he asked.  
"Never found the top speed," Priss gave a meek smile, "It's too damn scary even for me,"  
Shinji was surprised. He always figured Priss loved thrills, high speed being one of them.  
"I never made it beyond third gear," Priss shrugged, not all that embarrassed about revealing one of her weaknesses, "I peaked out at just over four hundred miles per hours before I got too scared. To put things in to perspective, I was going that fast in third gear. This bike has six gears,"  
"F-four hundred miles per hour? Oh man, that must be really scary," Shinji commented, "Man, it's amazing, that you went that fast,"  
Priss nodded, "Of course. What's even more amazing was that I was racing at that speed. I lost because I couldn't muster the courage to pop it in to forth gear,"  
"W-who'd you lose to?" he asked, very curious. He never believed Priss, a speed demon, would ever lose to someone.  
"Who do you think? Ranma of course," she said, "The guy was riding a freaking bicycle. He was pedaling so fast I couldn't even see his legs. The wheels were spinning so fast that the tires blew simply because of the centripetal force from the wheels spinning so fast,"  
"So how'd you lose? If Ranma's wheels blew..."  
"He just kept pedaling," Priss sighed, "Even after the tires blew out and he was only riding on the rims,"  
"Jeez,"  
"After I conceded defeat, we stopped and I looked at the rims, they weren't even there, them too having blown out along with the tires. Ranma was riding on the spokes! The freaking spokes! How do you explain something like that?"  
Shinji was silent.  
"What was even more scary was that when the tires had blown out," she said, "He contemplated just running with the bike,"  
Shinji smirked, "That seemed like something Ranma would typically do,"  
"At around four hundred miles per hour?" she said loudly.  
Shinji shrugged, "What can I say? Ranma's fast,"  
"Ya think?" Priss said sarcastically, smirking.  
Shinji chuckled slightly.  
"Well, now that we're here, let's go in and let the hotel know that we're here and get our hotels,"  
"Um, thanks, Priss," Shinji said grateful, "Thanks for all that you're doing for me,"  
Priss blushed slightly, a bit taken aback at the show of sincerity in his gratitude toward her. She rarely ever helped anyone out, she used to helping herself out and believing others should do the same. However, realizing how much something as simple as a ride to Kyoto and a place to stay meant to someone made her realize that she could really get used to helping people out more.  
"Um, n-no problem," Priss said, "Anything for a good friend,"  
Together, the two of them headed in to the hotel, Priss not caring about the fact that her bike was illegally parked.  
Priss and Shinji emerged from the hotel about a half-hour after entering.  
"A-a-are you sure w-we should be staying in the s-same hotel room?" Shinji asked, blushing.  
"Even if it were a tiny hotel bedroom that only had one twin-sized bed, it wouldn't bother me. Besides, it's a penthouse," Priss smirked, "It's different from a hotel room. I can actually have as many as fifty people crashing in that penthouse at once and still not have to worry about it being crowded,"  
"A-are you going to do that?" he asked. "No," Priss said, "I'll just be you and me,"  
Shinji followed behind Priss as she walked up to her bike. She grabbed the parking ticket and crumpled it up, not even looking and chucking it over her shoulder, the crumpled ticket landing perfectly in a wastebasket.  
"Nice basket," Shinji smirked.  
"Thanks," she smiled, "I used to play basketball,"  
"Really?"  
She nodded, no even really knowing why she was talking about her childhood, "When I was really young. I used to play sports a lot. Basketball was one of them," She shrugged, "Well, that's besides the point. C'mon, let's get going,"  
"Get going? Where?" he asked.  
"What else, to buy you some new clothes," she said, throwing him the spare helmet.  
Shinji looked down at himself, "But I like these clothes,"  
Priss regarded Shinji. The young man was dressed rather plain, clad in slackers and a brand-name shirt. Although he looked okay in what he was wearing, he could look so much better in nicer clothes. And since he was going to be seeing Sumi, Priss didn't want Shinji to be dressed in anything but an amazing wardrobe.  
"We're going to get you clothes," Priss said.  
"But-"  
"The first thing we're going to do is buy you some damn boxers," she said, "I don't even wanna even begin to think how long you've been wearing the same pair of boxers,"  
"Not too long," he replied.  
"Any answer besides 'Since this morning' is merit enough get you new boxers,"

Shinji and Priss found themselves in a very upscale designer clothing store about a half-hour since they left the hotel. Since it was a small but expensive clothing store, there were very few customers in there. The few that were recognized Priss though. The left her alone after she gave them her autograph.  
Shinji held an outfit in front of him as he looked at the mirror.  
"This fits," he said.  
"Um, aren't you going to try it on?" she asked.  
"Why?" Shinji replied, "It's just a waste of time. There's only three sizes I need to worry about,"  
"And what sizes are those?" she asked.  
"'Too large', 'Too Small', and 'Just right'," Shinji said, wondering if his answered would be considered funny or just plain stupid.  
Priss laughed. That was funny. She didn't even want to think about how guys could actually do that, figure out if an outfit fit without having to try it on.  
"And what size is that?" she smirked.  
"'Too large'," he said, "However, all I need is a belt and I'll be fine,"  
He grabbed a random belt, "There. All done,"  
Priss couldn't help but admire how easy it was for guys to shop for clothes. She didn't think much about it though. What her mind seemed to focus on is how much Shinji had changed over the past couple of months.  
"Just curious," Priss said from out of the blue, "How didja become the man you are now?"  
"H-huh?" Shinji was very confused, stopping whatever he was doing to look toward her.  
Priss scratched her head, "Well, not two months ago, you were almost painfully shy and rarely talked to anyone. And now, you're much more outgoing,"  
"Um, d-do you think that's good?"  
She nodded, "Yes. It's a good improvement. N-not that I didn't like you when you were shy and all. It's just that this new version of you is a bit of a change,"  
"I think it's because of my training," Shinji said, smiling, "I've been doing some homework that seems to have helped me out quite a bit,"  
"Homework? What kind of homework?" she asked, very curious. How come she didn't know about it? "Well, Ranma asked that I talk to at least one random girl a day," Shinji said, blushing slightly from embarrassment. Since Priss was a friend, he didn't feel all that embarrassed about revealing such a secret. Actually, it wasn't even a secret. It was just something that wasn't readily told since it didn't really matter if they knew it or not.  
"Y-you can do that?" Priss was surprised. She had a lot of trouble believing that he could do that.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. It took a while, but I can do that. I'm up to the point where I can at least initiate conversation,"  
"Show me," she smirked, gesturing toward the young girl that was outside the store. She looked like she was waiting for the bus or something along the lines.  
"D-do I hafta?" he asked.  
Priss nodded.  
Shinji sighed. Perhaps it was better had he not told her.  
He took a moment to steel himself as hbirtlked outside and approached the girl. Priss watched in absolute amazement as she saw Shinji and the girl talking to one another for a few minutes before Shinji bowed and walked away, entering the stores.  
"W-wow," Priss was flabbergasted, "I-I can't believe you've come along so much in so little time. No offense, but I never figured I'd see you do something like that. It's actually really amazing,"  
I don't understand, she thought. I can't believe he had managed to change that much as to be able to just approach a random girl and talk to her. How come I never noticed something like this? Oh, I know why. He's different than his outward appearance gives off. He look exactly the same on the outside but is very much different on the inside.  
"What did you and that girl talk about?" Priss smirked, "What's her name?"  
"Her name is Min," Shinji stated, "She's here visiting her grandmother and was waiting for the bus to go to her house. She just got in to town last week,"  
Shinji could have probably gotten the girls number if he had asked her if she was interested in him showing her around. Of course, he'd be lying if he pretended he knew this place. Perhaps Shinji's honesty is what made him unable to get her number.  
"Did you try to get her number?"  
Shinji blushed, "N-no! W-why would I do that?"  
Priss smiled. That was the Shinji she was used to. The easily flustered one. Despite the obvious change in him, Shinji was still Shinji. She realized what kind of young man he was. He had somehow become a hybrid of Ranma and the Shinji he used to be. Still a bit shy but nowhere near as shy as he used to be. A bit outgoing but nowhere near as outgoing as Ranma is. There were personality traits to him that was very much like Shinji and very much like Ranma at the very same time.  
"So, what other 'homework' do you have?" Priss smirked.  
"Are you mocking me?" he asked curiously.  
Priss was taken aback from the comment, believing she was talking to Ranma for a split second, "N-no. I was merely curious,"  
"Oh," he gave a meek smile, "Um, well, if you really wanna know, Linna is giving me d-dancing lessons,"  
"What? Dancing lessons?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. She told me that I need to get used to physical contact so she asked that I do at least one form of physical contact per day,"  
"What kind of physical contact?" Priss narrowed her eyes, wondering if Linna had some perverted ideas on her mind.  
"Just a touch or something," Shinji said, "I've got a long way to go with that,"  
"A touch?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, something like my placing my hand on the small of your back like I'm guiding you as we walk down the street or something. For instance, I actually did that to you. I don't think you noticed it,"  
"Noticed what?" she asked, "If you mean coming in physical contact with me while riding with me on my bike, that kinda doesn't count since you hafta in order to hold on,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "I understand. However, when I got off the bike, I actually took your hand and helped you off,"  
Priss became very silent. Shinji had done that. She had actually found the gesture sweet.  
"I was really nervous offering my hand," Shinji blushed, "But I had to give it a try. Um, I hope you're not mad because it seemed like I was just using you to learn how to get used to physical contact,"  
Priss laughed, "Not at all. That's actually remarkable, Shinji. Y'know that? Even though you were nervous doing it, you actually did it like it was natural,"  
"R-really?" Shinji's eyes widened, "You really mean it? I only started doing this around last week,"  
She nodded, "Yes. It seems like you really pick things up real quickly,"  
"T-thank you," he felt very happy.  
That's definitely the Shinji I know, Priss thought with the smile. Shinji always liked compliments, even if they're small ones.  
"So, how goes that dancing lessons?" she asked.  
Shinji shrugged, "Well, not dancing lessons exactly. I can't do ballroom dancing or anything like that. She only showed me, um, club dancing. I really dunno what to call it,"  
"Club dancing, huh?" Priss smiled, "You mean grinding your hips against one another?"  
Shinji smiled meekly, "Yeah. Unfortunately, I'm way too uncomfortable with dancing. I'm definitely too uncomfortable with it, let alone to dance with Sumi,"  
"Dance with Sumi? Is that why you're asking for Linna's help?" Shinji blushed, "Y-yeah,"  
His stomach rumbled.  
"You're hungry already?" Priss' eyes was wide, "We ate right before we left the hotel in MegaTokyo. It's only been a little over two hours,"  
"I know," he said, "I've been eating more often and my appetite's pretty big nowadays. Besides, I kinda got used to eating a meal every two to three hours. It's been about that long since I last ate, afterall,"  
"All right, let's go get some food,"  
"Okay," he happily agreed.  
"However, before we head out, we still need to get you some damn boxers,"

"Is there a reason why you don't like my concerts?" Priss asked. She wondered why Shinji was much like all her other friends and seemed to lack any enthusiasm to attend one of them. Ranma was the only one that ever attended them, but that was usually to get a hold of her, not because he wanted to see her give a concert.  
"I don't think concerts are my thing," Shinji shrugged.  
The two of them were sitting inside of a sushi restaurant. Shinji was still dressed in his usual clothes, his new clothes in a bag right next to him.  
He was poking around at the giant sashimi sushi platter in front of him, not really knowing if he should be eating it, if it was any good for his diet. The sushi did look good though.  
"It's high in protein," Priss realized what Shinji was thinking, "There's probably around five grams of protein and around two hundred calories per four ounce serving on average, depending on what type of sushi you eat.  
"I guess it's not that bad if I deviate from my diet every here and there," Shinji commented, "It's been about two months since I started dieting and this is the first time I've ever deviated so much from it,"  
Priss smirked. She couldn't help but feel a bit naughty for corrupting Shinji. However, since this was a good substitute, it was no problem for him to eat.  
Together, the two of them ate, Priss having to stop every here and there to sign an autograph. "Doesn't it bother you?" Shinji asked, "Having to constantly stop what you're doing to sign autographs,"  
She nodded, "Yeah. However, it's the life I chose to be a music superstar,"  
She smiled, enjoying her conversation. As pathetic as it sounded, this was the first time in around five years since she had ever sat down and simply had a meal alone with a guy, even if it was Shinji.  
She rested an arm on the table, her chin in her propped hand, gazing at Shinji, "Didja know that this is, in a way, a date?"  
Shinji started choking on his food, coughing a few times. It made Priss realized that although she was comfortable with Shinji, she still had to watch what she was saying. Anything pertaining to relationships or anything remotely close to it was a subject Shinji understood very little about and was easily flustered about.  
"You okay?" she asked. Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I thought I heard you said that this was a date,"  
Priss shrugged, "It is, in a way,"  
Shinji became silent, blushing.  
She smirked, "You can consider it good practice, for when you really start dating,"  
"You've got a point," he realized, "This really does help out. Um, how am I doing so far?"  
Priss laughed, "I can't believe that we are even having such a conversation. If you really wanna know, I think you're doing fine. You should, however, try and improve your table manners,"  
"I should?" he asked, looking down at the sushi roll in his hands.  
"Sure. For instance, rather than using your hands, you should actually be using some chopsticks," Priss said. After a moment, she laughed because couldn't help but laugh at the iroK# Of all people she was teaching Shinji about table manners. It was like Ranma teaching Shinji about relationships.  
Shinji went about eating with the chopstick. When he did, Priss stopped laughing as she suddenly realized just how much Shinji had changed. Shinji was a rough edged diamond that needed polishing. All of his friends had been slowly polishing him in to the person he was today. "Something the matter?" he asked, now eating with chopstick.  
Shinji soaks up knowledge, Priss thought. That's why everyone seems so eager to help him and teach him, because they can see an improvement in such a short period of time. Ranma's teaching Shinji how to be more outgoing. Linna was teaching him how to get used physical contact and being physically close to a girl. Nene and Ritsuko had been teaching him computers all that years. Akane had taught him the foundation of his fighting abilities. And she, she had wanted to teach him how to ride a motorcycle initially.  
"I just realized that you're multi-talented," Priss commented.  
"In what?" Shinji asked, a bit self-conscious, not liking being on the chopping block.  
"Since you're always with everyone, I see a trait in several of them in you," she commented, "Like for instance, you're slowly becoming like Ranma,"  
"Um, is that a good thing or bad thing?" he smirked.  
"You see? Ranma makes comments like that," Priss laughed, which seemed to make Shinji silent, "Anyway, you don't do it quite often like Ranma, but there is an indication of so. From what I heard, you fight kinda like Akane and Ranma, switching between Akane's traditional style of punches and kicks and Ranma's untraditional style of grabs and tactics. You know computers only second to Ritsuko, Nene, and Sylia. You're becoming more of physical type like Linna, even though is very slight at the moment. And now, I'm pretty sure you box like that boxing trainer that sparred against Ranma that day we were all in there,"  
Shinji was silent for close to a minute before saying.  
"Wow, you're right,"  
Priss crumpled the parking ticket that was on her bike. This was the third parking ticket she got since she arrive in Kyoto, one by the hotel, one by the clothing store, and one right now.  
"All right," Priss looked at her watch, "It's around four-thirty now. That gives you an hour for you to get back to the hotel, showered and changed, and over to Sumi's house,"  
Shinji nodded, nervously, "Yeah. She gets out of work at six,"  
"Where's she work?" Priss asked, "You said she works at a restaurant on the weekends, right? It would've been nice if we showed up and ate there and paid her a visit early in the day. I'm kinda curious as to how she's doing,"  
"It would've been nice, but I never got the address to the restaurant," Shinji replied, "I only have her home address and telephone number,"  
"Well, couldn't you've called her house and asked whoever what home for the address to the restaurant where Sumi was working?" Priss smirked.  
"Man, I never realized that," Shinji slapped his forehead.  
Priss laughed.  
"Man, you're more like Ranma than you think,"

Priss, Shinji's on her bike, pulled up in front of the house that matched the address Shinji had told him. They found themselves standing in front of a giant iron gate that was the driveway entrance to Sumi's home.  
"It's obvious that it still seems in working order," Priss smirked, gesturing toward Shinji's lower regions.  
Shinji wasn't paying attention as he took of his helmet and looked at the piece of paper that he produced from this pants pocket, "Hm, it seems like the address matches," he looked at her, "What was that? I didn't hear whatcha said,"  
She smiled, "Don't worry about it,"  
Actually, she had noticed it on the trip of Kyoto but had never bothered to mention it.  
"You want me to wait for you?" she asked, taking her helmet off, resting on one of her thighs, heading her forearms on it.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I don't know if she's there,"  
"Um, you called her before you left the hotel," Priss smirked, "Of course she is,"  
She didn't bother to mention her surprise when she had saw Shinji's dialing the phone. She lingered around and was surprised to realize that he was talking to Sumi, having mentioned her name when he was saying hi. She was shocked that he had made it so far, to be able to call a girl. She needed to stay in contact with everyone more often, especially Shinji, so seeing such a change wasn't so surprising.  
Priss smirked as she watched Shinji take a few breaths.  
Shinji pressed a button on the intercom located to the right of the front gate.  
"Shinji?" a female voice.  
"Sumi?" Shinji recognized her voice.  
"Yeah, came the voice, "I'll let you in,"  
A second later, a clicking noise could be heard. Suddenly, a sound of a motor could be heard as the gate slid to the left.  
"Well, I guess I best get going," Priss smiled, putting her helmet back on. "C-can't you just come with me?" Shinji asked, very nervous.  
Priss smiled mischievously, "You're on your own from here on,"  
She could stay and go with him to visit Sumi, she not needing to worry about being at the stadium for a few hours. However, she was going to leave Shinji on his own. She couldn't help but wonder if cat ears would sprout on the top of her head since she was acting like a scheming cat.  
He sighed. He was worried that she would say something like that.  
"You have the address to the hotel and my cell number with you. If you get in any trouble out here, don't hesitate to call, okay?" Priss said.  
Shinji nodded.  
"You've got the ticket I gave you?" she asked. When he nodded, she added, "Remember, since your friends only have regular tickets, they can't get backstage. That's why you hafta tell the people doing the tickets that your friends are with you and that they're your guests,"  
"Okay," he nodded, "I'll do that,"  
Smiling, Priss opened the throttle and sped off, leaving Shinji standing by himself in front of the gate.  
Wish me luck, Shinji thought, heading up the driveway toward the house.

Shinji looked about, shocked at how lavishly furnished the livingroom area was. He noticed that that there was a giant staircase that led upstairs located directly in front of him as he entered the high-ceilinged livingroom. To his right were two giant oak doors that most likely led to a home office and meeting room.  
To the right were the furniture, a massive television that was probably close to a hundred inches large. As large as it was, it was probably around an inch in depth and hung on the wall as if it where a painting or such. Surrounding the television was a U-shaped black leather couch that could probably seat around twenty people, a glass table located right inside that U-shape. To the right of the television was a giant black grand piano. To the right of that was, surprisingly, a bar. It seemed like this livingroom area entertained many guests. By the back left of the livingroom was a hallway that most likely led to staff bedchambers as well as the kitchen.  
"Um, n-nice house," Shinji commented.  
"Thanks," Sumi smiled, "My aunt, Kisen, decorated the livingroom and many of the rooms of this house,"  
"I didn't realize you were so well off," he said.  
Sumi blushed, "Well, my dad is the CEO of a giant engineering company and my mom owns a chain of restaurants,"  
"You have a point," he agreed.  
Shinji's stomach grumbled. Although he had eaten around two hours ago, he was starting to feel hungry again. He had noticed that he seemed to need to eat around every two to three hours. It was probably because the extra muscles he had were more energy consuming than he figured.  
"Seems like you're hungry," Sumi smiled.  
Shinji blushed, "Um, s-seems so,"  
"Well, I haven't eaten yet either," Sumi said, "I only got home a short while ago. If you don't mind, we can go out and get a bite to eat,"  
"Um, I-I don't mind," he said.  
It's a little after six now, Shinji thought. If we go out and eat, wouldn't that be considered dinner? Are they going to be going to dinner together?  
"Um, nice outfit by the way," Sumi said, a bit nervous.  
"Thanks," he replied, suddenly feeling a bit happy that Priss helped him get some new clothes. Of course, he paid for everything that was his but Priss seemed to have an eye for fashion. "I hope you don't mind, but Alison and Sen should be arriving here soon," Sumi said, "Since the concert is tonight at ten, they usually show up here so we can head off for there shortly afterwards so we could get there at around eight,"  
"At eight? Why so early?" he scratched the back of his head, "Why not just show up right when it starts?"  
Sumi smiled, "Priss' concerts let people in an hour before it starts, so everyone could be settled in right before it starts,"  
"Ah,"  
"You got a ticket?" she asked, "I'm very glad that you're going to be coming with us," Shinji reached in to his pocket and produced the ticket, "Yeah. I got it. Priss gave it to me. Also, I have good news. We can use this ticket to visit her much like how you and your housemate visited her that time around,"  
"But we have normal tickets," Sumi said, "You're the only one that have such a ticket,"  
Shinji shook his head, "Oh, no. She said I can use this ticket and tell the ticket person that you're my guests and they'll let you through,"  
"Really? That's great!" Sumi said happily. "H-hi, Shinji," Alison said, smiling warmly at him. She was very pleasantly surprised to see him when she stepped out of passenger side of Sen's car, Sen stepping out of the driver side.  
She approached him as Shinji and Sumi emerged from the front door. It was only around six-thirty, Sumi having called her friends and telling them the Shinji was already at the house.  
"Hi, guys," Shinji smiled toward both Alison and Sen, "It's nice to see you again,"  
"Shinji, my man, it's nice seeing you again," Sen said jovially, "Well, since we're here, let's go get some food. I'm hungry,"  
"Same here," Shinji smiled.  
Alison turned toward Sen, wondering what was wrong with him, "But you just ate on the way here,"  
"And?" Sen seemed confused.  
Shinji couldn't help buck snicker at the reply. Shortly after, everyone seemed to laugh.  
"Well, let's go get some food before we head off to the stadium," Alison said, "Shinji can sit in back seat with me. Sumi, you can sit up with Sen,"  
"What?" Sumi's eyes widened.  
Alison smiled, "I'm just joking,"  
Sumi blushed. Shinji gave a meek smile.

Shinji, Sumi, Alison, and Sen emerged from Sen's car in a crowded parking lot. It was right around eight. They were parked near the outskirts of the lot and had a good three hundred yard trek before they would reach the line forming around the giant stadium.  
There were many people gathered about in the parking lot, lots of them gathered around their cars and drinking.  
"Looks like the party's started early," Sumi commented with a smirk.  
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.  
"You've really never been to a concert before, right?" she asked.  
Shinji nodded his head, "Yes, I've actually been to one of her concerts before. However, I never came here before it started. It seems like people are getting liquored up,"  
"That's right," Sen said, "That's one of the fun things about concerts. Usually, around a quarter to half of the attendees get drunk even before they enter the concert, especially Priss' concerts,"  
"Really? I never knew that," Shinji said.  
Alison smiled, finding Shinji's naivet a bit refreshing. Most guys just usually lied about what they knew, not wanting to sound stupid in front of girls. "Priss! Why dontcha luv me!" a drunk attendee shouted toward the air, some of the contents of his beer spilling on to the asphalt of lot.  
The friends, all of them pretty liquored up, started laughing at their friend, pointing at him as he fell to the ground in a drunken stupor.  
When they noticed the four young adults regarding them, they held their bottles of beer toward the air in an ostentatious salute toward them.  
The four of them continued on toward the stadium entrance.  
Sen, the most experienced concert go-er, was leading the group. "Those guys should've waited until the people were being let in before getting drunk," Sen commented, jerking a thumb behind his shoulder, "By the time the staff lets people in, several of them will be too drunk to even walk straight, let alone make it to the entrance and be allowed in,"  
As the got closer, a suspicious group of four guys around their age approached them, walking up to Sen first. Sumi became a bit edgy. Although all of them were friends from an upscale neighborhood, and weren't supposed to be used to dealing with shady people, Sumi had only gone to around half as many concerts as Alison and only a third as many as Sen. She glanced over when she spotted Shinji. Suddenly, she found herself feeling calm and safe.  
Shinji, a bit annoyed with himself that he was judging the group by their outward appearances, regarded them with a critical eye.  
"Hi, would you guys be interested in buying some tickets?" a scalper said, a big smile on his lips.  
Shinji shook his head, "Not interested,"  
"Are you sure?" the guy that seemed to be the leader of the group asked.  
"We have our own," Shinji said, producing his own ticket, "See?"  
"No!" Sen and Alison shouted.  
It was too late.  
The head guy grabbed the ticket from Shinji's hand and immediately turned around and bolted. The three guys that was behind him, stepped next to each other so that they formed a human wall to block any of the four of them from chasing after their friend after their friend ran right past them. They had big grins on their faces. It seemed like these people weren't aware of some of the things people do to acquire tickets, even if it meant mugging people.  
Having spotted the two couples walking down the lot, Sen the biggest of that group but smaller than the smallest person in their own group, they figured they were easy targets and new to concerts and some of the going-on's that occur there.  
Three down, one more to go, the group of three thought, having done it twice before. They always attended concerts that way, hoping some stupid sap would hold out his or her ticket so that their main sprinter, a track and fielder, would grab the ticket and bolt, meeting up with them at their assigned rendezvous point after a set time had elapsed. Since there were close to almost a hundred thousand people about, it was near impossible for them to be recognized.  
Shinji's eyes widened when he realized what had happened.  
"Hey!" he shouted.  
He tried to run after the ticket grabbed but was unable to, blocked by the three-person human wall that had formed in front of him.  
When he realized what had happened, he sneered, "Move!"  
"What, we didn't do nothing wrong," one of the guys said. Since they hadn't grabbed the ticket, they weren't at fault. It was merely coincidence that they happened to be standing there when the ticket-jacking occurred.  
Shinji dashed toward the left, the three guys shifting in that direction. When they did, Shinji suddenly dashed toward the right and going in the opposite direction, running around them.  
The outside guy, realizing that their friend needed a good head start so he wouldn't get caught, reached out and grabbed Shinji's arm.  
"Bad move," Shinji sneered, actually glad the man grabbed him.  
He grabbed the man's wrist with one hand and twisted it fiercely in one direction, sending the man flying to the ground.  
"Sorry man. You accidentally grabbed me," Shinji said, "It wasn't my fault, just like you and you friends happening to be in front of me,"  
Shinji looked forward and realized that the ticket-grabber was a great distance away, the man's sprinting speed extremely impressive. He knew that there was no way he would be able to catch the man.  
He looked at the ground and found a good sized rock. Picking it up, he threw it toward the guy, the rock sailing through the air where it hit the guy in the back of the head, the man falling down and tumbling bodily several times due to his momentum, his body getting banged up.  
"All right!" Shinji grinned.  
It seemed like Ranma's lessons of rock-throwing really helped. Since Ranma seemed to be really efficient with throwing rocks, having actually downed helicopters that way, he had taken it upon himself to teach Shinji its effectiveness.  
Shinji turned his attention toward the two guys just to his left. The third guy was getting back to his feet. They looked to be in a state of shock at just what had happened.  
Very confident about himself, Shinji felt not one bit intimidated about there being a chance of a fight.  
"You fuck!" the thrown man sneered as he got to his feet. Shinji stood defiantly.

Shinji looked at the knuckles of his left fist. He and the group were waiting on line to have their tickets taken and let in.  
"Does it still hurt?" Alison asked, eyeing Shinji fondly ever since that scuffle he took care of about an hour ago.  
Shinji nodded, opening and closing his hand, "Yeah. It still stings,"  
"That was great, you throwing a rock and knocking that guy out," Sen commented, still shocked about what had happened.  
"I know, you said that to him a dozen times already," Alison smirked toward Sen.  
"Does stuff like this happen all the time?" Shinji asked, "With people basically mugging people for tickets?"  
Sen shrugged, "Not too often but it happens. I guess it's because you're so new to coming to concerts that they found you an easy target,"  
"Well, if I ever come to a concert again, I'll be sure not to take out my ticket," Shinji said, "I'm just glad everything turned out okay,"  
"Cool, the lines starting to move," Alison noticed the people in front of them moving forward slowly, "All right, get your tickets ready. It'll only be a short while before we'll be at the gates,"  
Shinji reached in to his back pocket to get his ticket. After a moment, he realized something.  
"Um, I think someone just pickpocket me,"

new stuff 9/18

Shinji and company entered Priss' dressing room at around half past nine.  
Priss had a grin on her face as she saw Shinji enter, a meek smile on his face.  
"Thanks, Priss," Shinji said.  
"What happened?" she asked. "Someone pickpocket me of the ticket you gave me," Shinji answered, "That's why I had to call you like that, because I had no ticket,"  
"Ah, I understand," Priss smiled.  
Priss regarded Sumi and the others.  
"So, you all know each other?" Priss asked.  
"Um, yes," Sumi spoke on her friends' behalf, "This is Alison and Sen. We know each other from childhood,"  
"Oh, so you two don't know Shinji?" she asked, a bit disappointed.  
"We met a while about three weeks ago," Sumi answered for them, "They met him though me,"  
Priss said nothing. Perhaps she was expecting too much to believe that Shinji would have made more than one friend. The only friend he seemed to have met recently that she was aware of was Oki, which she had only heard about. Perhaps Shinji wasn't so different afterall since he never seemed susceptible to having many friends.  
"Well, it's nice to meet you guys," Priss smiled.

Shinji didn't feel like he was enjoying himself. It was only around midnight and the concert didn't end until around one.  
He and the others were in the area that separated the crowd from the stage. It was the same area where Sumi and Meito had been at one of Priss' concerts elsewhere.  
His ears hurt from the deafening music emanating from the gigantic speakers located just a short distance away to the left and to the right of where they were.  
"Shinji, you're the man! This is awesome!" Sen shouted in to Shinji's ear.  
"Um, t-thanks!" Shinji yelled back in reply over the music.

"So, you guys have fun?" Priss asked as she was toweling herself off. "Oh hell yeah!" Sen shouted, probably the happiest he had ever been. Shinji and the others were following behind Priss as she was headed toward her dressing room, occasionally stopping to say hi to a few of the lucky fans that actually had backstage tickets for that concert.  
Priss, having invited them backstage to have a quick drink and bite to eat with her before they went on their separate ways.  
"That was amazing! I couldn't believe we were able to stand so close to the stage!" Alison said, "I'm still in a state of shock!"  
"Thanks looking out for us, Priss," Sumi said sincerely, "You didn't have to, but you made our concert-going experience unbelievable. Thank you,"  
Priss smiled, "It's no problem. Well, I'm glad you guys had fun,"  
She noticed that Shinji had not said anything.  
"How about you? Did you have fun?" Priss asked.  
"What?" Shinji asked, his ears still ringing.  
"Did you have fun?" Priss asked louder.  
Shinji became nervous, not really knowing what to say. Priss was his friend and he knew she liked honesty, even if it was a bit mean. However, he was also with Sumi and the others and it might embarrass her to be told something like that in front of adoring fans.  
"Um, I-I liked it," he said, not all that enthusiastic, looking toward the ground.  
Priss smirked, reading Shinji like a book. Shinji wasn't good at telling lies and had this quirk of not looking directly in people's eyes when he told a lie.  
"C'mon, you can tell me the truth," she said, pretty sure what he was going to say, "Did you like the concert?"  
"Um, not really," Shinji answered, "I remembered not having fun the first time around. Um, this kinda reminded me of that one as well,"  
Shinji's friends' eyes widened in absolute shock when they heard Shinji's comments.  
Priss smirked. She hadn't been told something like that in the longest time. The last time anyone had ever mentioned not enjoying the concert was Ranma, him saying virtually the same thing. The only differ?" e was that Ranma had said what was on his mind outright instead of trying to hide it initially like Shinji did. That was where they seemed to be different. Shinji tried to be tactful while Ranma didn't try.  
The first time anyone had ever said that was several years ago, when Ranma had first come back after having been gone for ten years, after he had single handedly brought down Genom Corporation and supposedly died saving MegaTokyo from certain disaster. It brought back nostalgic memories to Priss that made her smile.  
She reached an around out and placed an arm around, his neck, giving him a bit of a headlock. Even though he had been trained to escape it, he chose to take no action for fear of hurting a good friend like Priss.  
"Thanks, Shinji, I needed that," she said happily, feeling young and alive.  
Shinji staggered to keep up, very confused why she was smiling so much all of a sudden.  
"W-what did I do?" he muttered.

"Shinji, before I forget," Priss called as Shinji and the others were about to leave her dressing room to head out.  
"What is it?" he asked.  
Priss threw a key across the room, Shinji catching it. He looked at it curiously, wondering what it was for.  
"It's the key to my hotel room," Priss answered before he could ask the question. "H-hotel room?" Sumi and the others stammered. They knew they heard that correctly, that Priss had just given Shinji the key to her hotel room.  
Shinji laughed, "Oh yeah. It totally slipped my head. I was about to ask you about that," Priss smirked when she noticed the glances Sumi and darting back and forth between her and Shinji, thoughts obviously racing through her mind based on what she had just heard.  
Shinji put the hotel key in his pocket, "Thanks,"  
"When're you going to be stopping back at the hotel?" Priss asked curiously. She was supposed to be a responsible adult and keep tabs on what he was doing while he was under her care. However, she didn't really care, knowing that Shinji could take care of himself and didn't need to be kept tabs on.  
Shinji scratched his head, "Um, I really dunno. We're heading to a dance club from here,"  
"All right," she smiled, "I guess I won't wait up,"  
"Huh, why would you wait up?" he asked curiously.  
"N-nevermind," she gave a meek smile. She had merely said it to get more thoughts running through Sumi's heads.  
Shinji said, "Um, well, I guess it's best we get going,"  
"All right," Priss smiled, "You guys have fun and drive safely,"  
"T-thanks," all but Shinji said.  
Together, the four of them left the dressing room, leaving Priss by her lonesome.  
"What? Why're are you all looking at me like that?" she heard Shinji's voice as their footsteps could be heard walking away from her dressing room, "Of course. She gave me the key because we're in the same hotel room,"  
Let's see if making Sumi think she has competition will make her be a bit more aggressive toward Shinji, Priss thought with a laugh.  
"Damn, I'm bad," Priss smirked mischievously. Shinji paid for Sumi's admission as Sen Alison's. Once again, their licensed were checked and a large 'X' were written on the back of their hands indicating that the bartender is not to serve them since they were under the legal drinking age.  
The four of them entered through the door, immediately hearing the loud music being played even before they were actually in the club.  
Man, I can't believe I'm going to dance club yet again, Shinji thought. Didn't I learn from my first club-going experience back in MegaTokyo?  
Shinji looked about and noticed that the dance club looked different from the other one had had been at a while ago. The moment they stepped through the entrance, they had to go down a pair of stairs.  
"The dance club is located below the bar," Sumi noticed Shinji looking confused, "It's basically the basement of a bar, but the bar and dance club are separated,"  
"Oh,"  
As they emerged from the stairway and in to the club, Shinji looked about. To the immediate left was a small bar. In front of the bar stretching all the way back was a dance floor, many people dancing to the trance music being played.  
"Shinji, you want anything to drink?" Sen asked him.  
"No thanks," he said, shaking his head, "I don't drink,"  
"I'll get you water like Alison did last time," Sen said.  
"Um, okay," he said. He didn't mind having some water.  
Sen and Alison walked off toward the bar to get some drinks. It seemed as if Alison wanted to keep Sen company, or perhaps leave Shinji and Sumi alone.  
"Is he going to get alcohol for himself?" Shinji asked.  
Sumi nodded, "Yes. Actually, for himself and Alison,"  
"Does you friends drink a lot?" he asked merely out of curiosity. "No," Sumi replied, "They're just social drinkers. They only drink when they go to a dance club, to loosen up. They don't do it any other time. That's why they didn't drink at the stadium parking lot or even at the concert like a lot of people,"  
"Oh," he said.  
"The concert was great," Sumi added, "It was probably even better than when I went with Meito. It was so cool of Priss to give us all those autographed memorabilia after the concert,"  
Shinji smirked, "Yeah, they'll probably fetch for a good price at an internet auction or so,"  
"No way," Sumi said, "I have no intention of selling the stuff she gave me. I don't know about Sen or Alison, but I'm going to keep everything she gave me. And speaking of which, how come you didn't ask for anything?"  
"Why?" Shinji said, "I think it's because I don't see her like fans do. I've known Priss for a while and I see her differently. I think that's why I don't find myself really wanting autographs or so like fans do,"  
"Oh,"  
Besides, the stuff they got probably pale in comparison, Shinji thought. I probably could get Priss' panties if I wanted to and I'm sure they're considered more valuable than an autographed poster or something.  
"What the hell am I thinking!" Shinji told himself.  
"Excuse me?" Sumi asked, having trouble hearing over the dance music.  
"Um, n-nothing," he gave a meek smile, "Um, do you come here often?"  
Sumi smirked, "That sounds like a pick-up line,"  
Shinji blushed, "I-I didn't m-mean it like that. I meant something like do you go to dance clubs a lot,"  
Sumi giggled, "I know what you mean. This is the first time I've been in here. In school, whenever my friends and I go out, we usually go to dance clubs. Since I dislike drinking, I don't go to bars nor go to parties or such. This is a good thing for my friends since I'm usually the designated driver,"  
"Oh," he said.  
"Got you some drinks," Sen came back, carrying two bottled waters.  
He handed one each to Shinji and Sumi. Alison came back and gave Sen a beer bottle, she having a beer bottle of her own.  
"How do you get alcohol when your not of age?" Shinji asked curiously.  
Alison smiled, "What, you interesting in drinking now?"  
Shinji blushed, "N-no! I-I was merely curious!"  
Alison laughed, touching Shinji's arm, "I know the bartender, silly,"  
"Oh, just like Meito," Shinji commented.  
"Yes," she said, "Besides, it's not that hard even if you don't know the bartender, if you're a girl that is. You just walk up to a random guy and ask if he can buy you a drink. Of course, you're obligated to dance with him for at least one dance. This is if you're by yourself. If you wanna get drinks for your friends, just ask someone you think is old enough to buy them for you and give them the money,"  
"Oh," Shinji said, "I get it,"  
After a few swigs, she finished her beer bottle and turned toward Sen, "Sweetie, can you get me another one?"  
"Sure," Sen said, "You want me to get you something stronger?"  
"Nah," she replied, " Get me something sweet,"  
"Okay," Sen finished his own beer and walked off toward the bar.  
"Does Sen know the bartender as well?" Shinji asked Alison.  
Alison nodded.  
After a few minutes, Sen came back with a bottle of beer for himself and a large red drink that looked like it had crushed ice in it.  
"Ooh, strawberry daiquiri," Alison grinned, "Just I was thinking,"  
"It looks like strawberry ice," Shinji commented, never even realizing drinks looked like that, "What is it?"  
"Take a sip," Alison offered him, "There's almost no alcohol in it,"  
Shinji held a hand up and shook his head, "Sorry, no alcohol for me,"  
He remembered some of the bad memories dealing with alcohol. It was all because Misato had been drinking beer and basically shoved beer down his throat, making him almost retch. He wanted nothing to do with alcohol.  
"You're no fun," Alison smirked, sipping her drink, "This is a strawberry daiquiri. It only has a small percentage of alcohol in it. Taking a sip won't kill ya,"  
"Just leave Shinji alone," Sumi came to his defense, "If he doesn't want to drink, then he doesn't want to drink,"  
"All right," Alison gave a yielding look.  
"C'mon, let's go dance," Sen said, finishing his second drink, grabbing Alison's hand hands, pulling her toward the dance floor.  
"See ya on the dance floor," Alison said, heading off with Sen.  
Shinji watched as they got right on to the dance floor and started dancing close to one another. However, to his surprise, they didn't start dancing like the other time in the dance club in MegaTokyo. They were close to each other but weren't pressed against one another.  
Perhaps it was because it was trance music being played instead of dance music like at the other club, a huge difference in sound and beat and rhythm.  
Shinji couldn't help but watch Sen as he went about dancing in a fashion Shinji had never seen before. He watched as Sen moved his left hand in one direction while the right hand followed closely behind, as if trailing it. It started off slow and the hands' movements just in front of the body. However, when a very intense portion of the trance song kicked it, the movements covered a larger area but still moved in a smooth fashion.  
"That form of dancing's called 'Liquid'," Sumi commented, noticing how Shinji seemed to be transfixed on Sen, "Sen's an amazing liquid dancer and enters dance competitions,"  
"W-wow," Shinji said, still watching.  
He looked at Alison who was doing the same thing, her hands moving about in similar fashion. It looked as if she were learning and was more along the lines of observing Sen while trying to emulate his style, albeit slower and less smooth.  
"Alison only started learning it a short time ago," Sumi said.  
"It looks...interesting," Shinji commented.  
"He's only warming himself up," Sumi commented, "His dancing usually mixes several styles like 'Liquid' and 'Popping' and 'Waving' and transitioning between them. You should see his 'Gliding',"  
"I don't know what any of those mean," Shinji gave a meek laugh, "Liquid? Popping? Waving? Gliding?"  
"Just think of them as styles that have very smooth-looking moves," Sumi answered, "It's kinda hard to describe it. Basically, because of the way the dancer moves, you can tell if they're doing one move or in the middle of transitioning to another move,"  
"Um, okay," Shinji was confused.  
I wish katas looked like a form of dance, Shinji thought. Then I'd be able to at least do something.  
Sumi giggled, "I guess since you're new to this, it's understandable. I know about this because of Sen. I don't know how to do it though,"  
She doesn't know how to do it and neither do I, Shinji thought. Perhaps we can learn it together.  
"Um, y-y-you wanna try and learn it together?" he asked very nervously. Since he wouldn't be the only one learning, then he didn't feel so self-conscious.  
Heh, all of Linna's training in dancing while pressed against one another seems to be going right out the drain, Shinji thought. "Sure!" Sumi seemed ecstatic to hear Shinji said that.  
Before Shinji could do anything, Sumi grabbed one of his hands, her hand soft to the touch he noticed, and almost dragged him toward the dance floor.  
"Oh my god, what have I gotten myself in to," Shinji asked himself.

Sen was heavy and probably weighed around a hundred and seventy pounds.  
Shinji had realized that as he carried him in a piggy-back ride. Alison didn't look all that good either, needing support from Shinji and Sumi to keep from falling over as she staggered.  
It was probably around three in the morning and Shinji and Sumi were walking up a pair of concrete stairs toward the forth level of the parking lot located near the dance club where they were parked.  
"Are you having trouble carrying him?" Sumi asked.  
"Kinda," he answered, "Carrying Sen is pretty hard work as it is, but climbing for flights of stairs makes it even harder. However, I can handle it,"  
I've felt my thighs burning like this before, Shinji thought. I'm used to this feeling.  
"My friends are usually responsible drinkers," Sumi said, "I've never seen them like this before. I'm so glad you're here helping out,"  
"No problem," Shinji smiled warmly, "I guess it's understandable. We did come from a concert and I guess they wanted to make this night unforgettable by drinking more than usual,"  
Sumi laughed, "You've got a point. However, it'd be very funny if they actually drank so much that they forgot tonight,"  
She proceeded to make Alison drink some of the water she got right before she left the bar, before they got kicked out.  
"That's smart," Shinji said, "Making her drink water now will keep her from getting a hangover tomorrow,"  
That was a trick Misato did, always drinking water before she went to sleep. Since the feeling of a hangover was the result of a lack of fluids and the body being dehydrated, drinking water cures it completely.  
"I know," Sumi said, "This is her second bottle. Two more and she should be fine,"  
"What about Sen here?" Shinji asked, gesturing toward the unconscious man on his shoulders.  
Sumi giggled, "He's passed out. There's no way to make him drink. He's going to have to suffer the hangover,"  
"Y-yer a shwell guy, Shunji," Alison stammered, "I-I'm glad I metcha,"  
"Um, thanks," Shinji smirked.  
He paused for a moment when they stepped out of the stairwell, needing to rest after climbing those stairs. Sumi just looked up at him as she watched him catching his breath at an astounding rate. After around a ten second rest, Shinji looked perfectly fine, his breathing already back to normal.  
Sumi was very surprised at this because she was still winded from climbing the stairs and only helping burden some of Alison's weight. Shinji was carrying all of Sen's and more than a majority of Alison's weight.  
"Did you have fun?" Sumi asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
He was referring to the time spent sitting off on the side talking to Sumi. They had spent a good ten minutes trying to learn how to do 'Liquid' like Sen was showing them before they realized that they couldn't do it like him and had both agreed to step off the dance floor and simply sit down in a corner and simply chat.  
"I'm sorry we didn't dance. Dancing doesn't seem to be my thing," he added regretfully.  
Sumi smiled, "It's no problem. Um, the time we spent just talking was fine,"  
Although different from dancing, she found herself enjoying herself just as much sitting down and just chatting with Shinji.  
"Your friends looked like they had fun," a rather sober individual with several of his friends said, gesturing toward Sen and Alison.  
"I think so, too,"

Shinji crossed the hotel lobby at around three-thirty.  
He couldn't help but wonder if he should have tried to kiss her while in the car, after he had thanked her for the ride. It was that brief moment when their eyes connected, right before Shinji stepped out of the car.  
Since he had no real idea what signal to be looking for, there had definitely been an awkward silence. He felt a bit grateful when Alison, almost half passed out in the backseat, Sen sleeping soundly next to her, made a noise that quickly made them realize how awkward the interior of the car had gotten.  
"T-thanks for the ride," Shinji said, "I had a great time tonight,"  
"S-same here," she said, a slight blush on her face.  
"I'm glad I came to visit," he commented.  
"Feel free to visit whenever you're in Kyoto or nearby," she said, "You know where I'll be,"  
"I'll try," he said, "I've got a funny feeling I'm going to be working more often after I get back so I doubt I'll be able to come visit,"  
"Oh," Sumi was disappointed.  
Shinji got out of the car, "Um, I-I'll be sure to call you,"  
"All right," she smiled, "If I don't see you again, I'll see you in the Fall semester,"  
"Please, tell Alison and Sen I said goodbye," he said, "You take care,"  
"Bye,"  
That had basically been the extent of their departure. No kiss. No hug. Nothing. Just a simple goodbye. Unfamiliar with what to do in a situation, Shinji had shied away from the awkwardness like he usually did, instead of plunging headstrong through and finding out what was on the other side like Ranma.  
"That probably would've been a good time to have tried to kiss her, right before I stepped out of the car,"

It was early Sunday morning and Priss and Shinji were seated in front of one another at a table inside the hotel room. They were having some breakfast, brought up by room service only a short while ago.  
Priss, having fallen asleep before Shinji got back, wasn't able to find out how his after-concert outing had gone. When she woke up in the morning and went out in to the living room, she found Shinji sleeping soundly in the livingroom. After she took her morning shower, she came back out to find Shinji in the process of waking up, stretching and yawning. She had told him to go take a shower while she called room service. When he got done and dressed, he came out to find breakfast had been brought up by room service.  
"So, did you have fun last night?" Priss asked, smirking.  
Shinji nodded, "Yes," "Whatcha guys do, if you don't mind my asking?"  
"We went to a dance club," Shinji answered, eating his meal, "Alison and Sen ended up drinking too much and basically passing out,"  
"Did you guys dance? What time did you come back?"  
Shinji shook his head, "No. We spent most of our time talking. I got back at around three-thirty,"  
"Well, I'm glad you guys had a fun time," she said.  
"Um, when are we expected to head back to MegaTokyo?" he asked.  
"We leave at noon so we have plenty of time," she answered.  
After a moment, she realized something.  
"What?" he noticed her staring at him. "I just noticed you're wearing the same clothes now after you took a shower as yesterday after we stopped at the clothing store," she said.  
"Yeah, what about it?" he shrugged.  
"Goddamnit, you're wearing the same boxers as yesterday!" she cringed.  
"Don't worry, I flipped it inside-out," he said.  
"That's not the point!"

Shinji entered the house at around two in the afternoon. He felt glad to be home.  
"Welcome back," Akane was the first to greet him, having heard him enter, "Did you have fun visiting your friend?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
He walked in to the livingroom where he saw Lina sitting on the couch watching television. For all he knew, she probably hadn't moved from there since he left on Saturday morning.  
"Hi, Lina," he greeted her.  
"Um, welcome back, Shinji," she didn't pay much attention to him.  
"How was your weekend?" he asked.  
Lina was a bit surprised Shinji had bothered asking that. He usually just greeted her and went on his way. He never bothered trying to actually initiate nor indulge in conversation with her, the two of them having nothing in common and Shinji usually finding himself having problems talking to her.  
"It was fine," she answered him.  
"I think there's an illusion show on later tonight, at eight," Shinji commented, "I remembered seeing a commercial for it when I was watching television at the hotel in Kyoto. I figured I'd letcha know,"  
"Um, thanks," Lina said, very interested in seeing that show, "Thanks for telling me,"  
"No problem," he said.  
Akane, whom had stood there silently the whole time couldn't help but smile. Shinji was finally starting to open up. Perhaps that trip to Kyoto really helped him out.  
Shinji headed in to the kitchen, hungry and in the mood for quick bite to eat, perhaps an apple or tomato or two. "Did you have fun in Kyoto?" Akane asked, entering the kitchen as well.  
"Yeah," Shinji said, "Where's Ranma and the others?"  
"Luna took Rei, Asuka, and Emiko to the amusement park," Akane said.  
"The amusement park?" Shinji asked, "Well, they'll probably have fun,"  
Akane nodded, "Yeah. Hopefully it'll cheer Emiko up,"  
"Cheer her up?" Shinji was a bit concerned, something Akane noticed, "What happened? Is she depressed or something?"  
She smiled, wondering if Shinji would figure it out, "Nah. Not depressed. Perhaps feeling a bit down. She started feeling down around the time when you left,"  
"Oh," Shinji said. Did he figure it out, Akane wondered. Emiko was feeling blue because you weren't around, Shinji.  
Shinji shrugged, "Well, I guess it couldn't be helped. Afterall, we usually go to the gym on Saturdays and take Sundays off. She's probably a bit upset that I didn't go on Saturday because it throws the workout rhythm off,"  
Akane fell to the ground. She gave a meek smile, "Um, y-yeah. That's probably it,"  
"How about Ranma, where's he?" he asked.  
Akane chuckled, "He's probably around two miles underground now,"  
"Huh?" Shinji was confused.  
"Remember that underground 'GeoFront' that we used to fight off the Angels on this world?" Akane smirked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. That's where Ranma and the others set up 'NeoNerv' Headquarters. What about it?"  
"Ranma's in the backyard shoveling and digging a hole straight down in to that 'GeoFront',"  
"What?" Shinji's eyes widened, "Why the heck would he do that?"  
"Ranma's really bored,"

new stuff 9/19

Shinji, clad in training clothes, jogged to Makunouchi Gym that day. It was only around five in the in the afternoon. Having realized that he had a lot of free time on his hands, he decided it was best to spend it training. Besides, it would be a shame if he didn't train that day since he already took Saturday off.  
Entering the gym, he glanced around, wondering if he was going to find his friend Oki. He wasn't surprised when he didn't find him, Oki much like him and usually training earlier in the day.  
After another quick glance, Shinji saw Ippo talking to someone wearing a business suit. He had never seen the guy before.  
At the same time he noticed Ippo, Ippo had noticed him.  
"Shinji," Ippo smiled, gesturing to the young man, "C'mon over here. I'd like you to meet a friend of mine,"  
Shinji did as he was told.  
"I would like you to meet my friend, Umezawa," Ippo said, gesturing toward the suited man.  
Shinji bowed politely, "How do you do? I'm Shinji,"  
He regarded Umezawa for a minute. The man stood a head taller than Ippo and looked to weigh around a hundred and eighty pounds, perhaps a bit lighter. Although he was taller than Ippo, Ippo was heavier and actually looked larger than him in musculature. The man had black hair that was combed back which gave him a professional look. "Umezawa here is a friend of mine," Ippo smiled, "We know each other from high school. He was the person that got me in to boxing,"  
"Heh, I used to bully Ippo in school and Ippo started boxing to defend himself," Umezawa said right off the bat. Shinji didn't believe what the man said. However, when he looked at Ippo and notice Ippo actually nod in acknowledgement, he was shocked.  
"Shortly after he became pro, Ippo and I became friends," Umezawa said, a bit embarrassed.  
"Wow," Shinji was very surprised. He never knew Ippo used to get picked on when he was young.  
"After high school, I went on to box professionally," Ippo said, "Umezawa went in to drawing manga. However, he does freelance work as a boxing reporter for 'Real Bout' magazine. He's here right now to see some of the new prospects. You're one of them,"  
"Real Bout magazine? You work for that magazine?" Shinji's eye widened, "I read that magazine all the time. Wait, did you do that 'Women in Boxing' article?"  
Umezawa nodded.  
"I really liked that article," Shinji said, "It was very informative. I never knew that there was such a double standard between men and women in boxing,"  
"Thanks," Umezawa smiled, "I knew that there was a big double standard and wanted to make the public more aware of it,"  
Ippo noticed Umezawa seemed to take an instant liking to the young man.  
"So, you're Ippo's new project, huh?" Umezawa smiled, regarding Shinji critically, liking what he was seeing, "You've got a good build for boxing. What are you, a welterweight? Around a hundred and forty pounds?"  
"Yeah, I think so," Shinji nodded, "However, I'm trying to work my way up to heavyweight,"  
"What?" Umezawa's jaw dropped.  
Ippo gave a meek smile, "It's a long story. I'll explain in another time,"  
"Okay," Umezawa shrugged, "I hope it's a good one,"  
"Shinji, why dontcha hop in to the ring?" Ippo said, "I'll spar against you for a bit to show Umezawa how far you've come along,"  
"What? M-me! A-against you?"  
Ippo smiled, "Yep,"

Shinji was in a meditative sitting position as Ippo climbed in to the gym. The sight of seeing this made Ippo a bit intrigued and cautious of what is to be in store.  
His calming his nerves, Ippo thought. That's very smart of him.  
Ippo proceeded to do some quick stretching exercises while in his corner.  
Gym patrons, realizing that Ippo was going to be sparring, had begun gathering around the ring.  
I need to gather my courage, Shinji thought. This is a sparring match. Ippo will go easy on me. However, I can't expect him to go that easy on me. I'm going to get hit. I hope I don't get knocked out on the first hit. I've seen him knock Ranma back with his punches and that's a feat in and of itself so those hits are going to really hurt. Ippo, finished with his stretching, hopped a few times in place, to get his legs warmed up. As he did so, Shinji, done doing his meditation, proceeded to start stretching, doing several versions of a lateral split, which prompted yelps of pain from the gym patrons with every position change. After a few seconds, he stood to his feet and started rotating his shoulders around in a circular motion, shaking his fists to loosen them.  
Shinji's not tired from his usual training, Ippo thought to himself. Unlike how I've seen him spar against Oki, I have to keep in mind that he trained for over an hour and a half and is almost dead tried when he starts sparring. This time, he's going straight in to sparring so he's full of energy.  
"I-I'm ready," Shinji said, feeling significantly less nervous than before. "All right, let's begin," Ippo said, signally for a bell to be rung.  
When the bell rang, Shinji and Ippo proceeded toward the center of the ring where they started circling one another. Everyone at the gym patron was watching the match intently now.  
Why'd I come to the gym, Shinji thought. Why? I'm going to get a beat-down from Ippo like I do from Ranma. No, wait, Ippo's not Ranma. Ranma's not normal. Ippo's normal. I should be able to hit him at least once. He regarded Ippo, who was in that Ippo Peek-a-boo stance he preferred. Both of his fists were close to his face, chin tucked behind it, his elbows pointing downward and outward toward invisible points just outside the width of his feet.  
Shinji was in the odd stance that he seemed used to, a hybrid of a martial arts and boxing stance. It looked similar to that of a Mui Thai Kickboxing stance, hands up in front of him, palms facing Ippo.  
His stance is like Oki's own stance, Umezawa thought. This is interesting. If this guy fights like Oki and can dish out more damage than him, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with.  
Little did Umezawa know was that Shinji had only started a very very short while ago and had yet to adapted a stance that fight his fighting style. The stance he had adopted was best described as an evasive stance, Shinji preferring to dodging over blocking.  
Just pretend you're fighting Ranma, Shinji told himself. However, you don't have to worry about him kicking him but that also means you're not allowed to kick at him either.  
Shinji dashed in, his speed surprising everyone, even Ippo.  
"Stumble goes on the offensive!" someone cheered, calling Shinji by the nickname given him, 'Stumble'.  
He's much faster when he isn't tired at the end of his training, Ippo thought as he blocked the two perfectly executed jabs and right straight punch.  
Shinji's hands throbbed when as he pulled his right hand away from Ippo's forearms.  
It feels like I'm punching steel, Shinji said, stepping back. I can't break that guard of his. It's too strong. Only someone strong like Ranma and Ryoga and break it. I need to do something to get him He dashed in again, executing a right-left-right combination, all three of them blocked. Shinji ended up pulling back again, his fists feeling numb.  
I'm putting too much force behind my punches and it's hurting me more than it's hurting Ippo, Shinji thought. Wait! Ippo tucks his chin behind his fists! Just hit his fist and have his fist hitting him in the chin!  
Shinji dashed in a third time and punched toward Ippo's fist. Unfortunately, he had forgotten that Ippo could dodge as Ippo weaved toward one side, Shinji punching nothing but air.  
Ippo took a few steps away. He was very impressed at Shinji's tactics, of trying to transfer the energy in to his fist to make him hit himself. You see that, Umezawa, Ippo thought with a smirk. He's already figured out how to use the Peek-a-boo style against his opponent.  
Little did he know that Ranma had commented about that, to aim for the fist instead of the head if Ippo used that stance. It was probably useless, given Shinji's punching power, but it was better than punch steel-hard forearms.  
Ippo dashed in toward Shinji, surprising Shinji.  
Shinji did the best that he could do to dodge Ippo's punches. To everyone's surprise, Shinji dodged three consecutive punches before he was hit directly in the chin by a well-aimed jab, the force of the impact shocking Shinji's body and causing him to fall to the ring canvas on to his hands and knees.  
"He's down. He's not getting back up," Umezawa thought, realizing Shinji had gotten hit right in the chin, "The young man's legs isn't going to working,"  
Shinji was breathing very heavily and wanted the round to end. However, he knew that that would not be the case, only around thirty seconds having elapsed.  
Shaking the cobwebs from his head, he got back up to his feet. Since Ranma constantly attacked Shinji's vital areas, Shinji had gotten used to being hit there. This was why Shinji was able to brush off getting shoulder rammed in the solar plexus and not become disoriented by the impact when he got in that brawl in the dance club.  
Shinji felt angry at himself. He couldn't believe how easily Ippo had brought him down for a knockdown.  
To everyone's surprise, Shinji went about attacking Ippo as if the chin blow didn't affect him.  
Ippo smiled as he dodged Shinji's punches, Shinji's punches way too slow to be off any worry to the retired Champion. He really admired Shinji's grim determination to keep on going.  
When Shinji executed a left straight punch toward Ippo's face, Ippo took that opening to execute his own left straight punch to counter that attack. To Ippo's surprise, Shinji quickly pulled back his left arm and did an uppercut with his right arm, hitting Ippo right in the forearm of the incoming fist. The impact and the fact that it struck the soft and vulnerable portion of the forearm, the part that contained the muscled that opened and closed the fist, send a shock of pain shooting through Ippo's arm.  
Before Ippo managed to pull his left arm back to his body, Ippo executed a left hook and punched the side of the forearm, sending another bolt of pain through the length of the arm.  
Ippo, realizing Shinji was trying to incapacitate his left arm, brought his right arm forward and punched toward Shinji's face. Fortunately for Shinji, he had seen the incoming punch and ducked toward the side under the punch, pivoting around on one foot and actually take a full step while his back was toward Ippo before turning around to face him, a good distance away.  
Ippo looked toward his left arm which was now numb and hanging useless by the side of his body.  
"Oh man, Shinji just knocked out the coach's left arm!" a patron yelled.  
"Nice tactic," Ippo complimented.  
Shinji said nothing, almost fearing for his life, knowing that Ippo would now be angry and would start fighting seriously. He didn't know if that was considered a cheap tactic or not, attacking an arm directly and punching at the forearm to disable it.  
Ranma used such tactics on Shinji all the time and Shinji had emulated that tactic and attacks on the stop, his body reacting to the incoming counter punch before Shinji's mind could.  
"It's obviously I've underestimated you," Ippo grinned, now having a new-found respect for the young man and his abilities.  
"Um, t-thanks," Shinji said nervously.  
Ippo brought his left hand back up and assumed his usual fighting pose. It seemed like Shinji's tactic didn't work on someone like Ippo. It might but understandable considering the size of Ippo's forearms was over twice the size of average forearms.  
Shinji had been so shocked upon realization that Ippo was able to use his left arm after two vicious blows that he was unable to respond as Ippo dashed in with a wicked right straight punch. Unable to dodge, Shinji brought both arms in front of him and blocked the punch. Unfortunately, the punch's devastating force crushed his guard, hitting Shinji right in the face, sending him flying backwards where he bounce against the rope, feet coming off the canvas as he almost flipped over the top rope.  
Ippo was momentarily shocked when Shinji didn't fall back down unconscious, landing right back on his feet. However, he looked ready to pass out and was breathing heavily.  
"Oh my god! Stumble is still standing!" everyone started cheering toward Shinji.  
Shinji was hurt. That punch was devastating. He couldn't believe Ippo could punch so hard. He thought only Ranma could punch that hard. Oddly enough, it was around the same power as one of Ranma's quick jabs that he usually used to stun Shinji.  
And stunned Shinji was.  
Shinji was in a completely defensive posture, his forearm held in front if him and covering his entire face and head. He wasn't even looking at Ippo anymore, his eyes closed and blocked by his forearms in front of him as he breathed heavily. His legs were shaking and were right about to collapse. Thank goodness the glove Ippo's wearing made the impact much less powerful, Shinji though. However, it's still so powerful that if I get hit like that again, I'm a goner.  
Ippo regarded Shinji as he approached him. Damn, Shinji's already got a pain threshold of a Heavyweight. Not many Heavyweights could even sustain a punch like that, much less continue standing. When Shinji isn't tired from training, his endurance and speed is significantly greater than when he is tired.  
Shinji, sensing Ippo close enough, lashed out with a wicked right hook punch, hitting the unsuspecting Ippo right in the side of the jaw, sending the man actually staggering for footing.  
"Stumble staggered the coach! Oh my god!" the crowd cheered.  
Shinji cautiously looked up through his guard. He was glad Ippo had took his time approaching, allowing the young man time to recover from the attack to lash out at him when he got close enough.  
He couldn't help but smirk. He was definitely hearing people cheering him. Sure, it was a bit embarrassing that they were referring him by his nickname, Stumble, but it was cheering meant for him nonetheless.  
Ippo wasn't hurt. It was the surprise that Shinji had landed a punch square on his jaw that made him stagger, not the punch itself. Shinji's punches, although rather powerful, were not powerful enough to be of any worry.  
Shinji, having caught his breath, assumed a fighting posture again.  
I think I can keep going, Shinji thought. My face hurts a lot, but I can recover after the bell rings.  
Shinji dashed in and punched toward Ippo.  
Ippo went about dodging the punches easily. To his surprise, when he tried to block one of the punches, to allow his forearm to hurt Shinji's fist and teach him not to be overly aggressive, Shinji actually stopped his incoming fist right before contact.  
Used to being the aggressor because of his sparring sessions against Ranma, Shinji continued attacking. Ippo found himself actually getting annoyed. Shinji looked as if he wasn't tiring, his punches moving at the same speed as when he first started the round. Only his heavier and heavier breathing indicated that he was tiring.  
"All right, it's time to end this," Ippo said, smirking.  
Ippo executed a straight counter punch toward Shinji's face as he attempted a straight punch at the end of a combination. Expecting Shinji to dodge the counter punch, Ippo landed an uppercut when Shinji instinctively ducked that punch and dashed it attempt a body blow.  
The uppercut rattled Shinji's brain as his mouthpiece flew out of his mouth, his head snapping backward so that he ended up looking straight up toward the ceiling rafters. He noted that the rafters supporting the roof of the gym looked fairly old. It reminded him of the time he had been sparring against Oki and had ended up being tripped and falling outside the ring and landed on his back.  
When Shinji's head came back down, he was in a slightly for Pri slumping position, his legs shaking violently. He found himself looking at Ippo, who looked shocked that he was still standing.  
Shinji smirked. A second later he laughed. This seemed to shock Ippo even more.  
Seeing the rafter also made him remember how the rafters of the dojo looked fairly new. He didn't know why, but he found it very funny especially in that delusional state he was in after being hit so hard.  
After a moment, Shinji fell forward on to his stomach, unconscious.

Shinji, Ippo, and Umezawa were sitting in the middle of the ring. Only around five minutes had elapsed since Shinji had been knocked out. After the sparring session, Ippo had asked a patron to get some water to help revive Shinji.  
A quick splash of cold water woke Shinji back up, causing him to snap wide awake and sit upright.  
"You know where you are?" Ippo asked. He checked Shinji's eyes and noticed that they didn't seem glassy.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I'm in your gym. Why?"  
Ippo sighed in relief, "Thank god. I was worried I hit you with that uppercut too hard,"  
Shinji rubbed at his face and yelped in pain. His face really hurt and felt swollen.  
"No need to touch it," Ippo told him, "There's a bit of swelling, but it'll disappear after a day or two. That first punch you took did a number on ya. I kinda got carried away,"  
"Okay," Shinji said obediently.  
"Shinji, you're amazing!" Umezawa commented.  
"Um, t-thanks," Shinji said, blushing slightly.  
"I'm definitely going to keep tabs on you," Umezawa said, "It's even more amazing you're not even a pro. You showed stamina and endurance of a veteran pro,"  
"Thanks," Shinji smiled, "I think it's because of my martial arts background. Um, I get a lot of beatings from it and I think I kind of got used to being hit, hard," "Kinda reminds me of my childhood when Umezawa used to bully me," Ippo laughed.  
Umezawa gave a meek smile, "Hey, I know. I was a bully back then. I'm not that guy anymore,"  
"I'm just teasing you, friend," Ippo said with a chuckle.  
Umezawa looked at his watch, "Damn, I've got to get home to the wife and kids. I'm late and I don't wanna get in trouble," Ippo laughed. Umezawa turned toward Shinji and said, "Boxing just got a whole lot more interesting. I'm looking forward to following your pro boxing career,"  
"Um, t-thanks," Shinji found himself embarrassed about all the extra the attention.  
"Well, I'll stop by here in a few months and see how things come along," Umezawa said, "If not, I'll be sure to see you again after you turn pro,"  
"It was nice meeting you," Shinji got up to his feet and bowed.  
"Nice meeting you too, Shinji," Umezawa answered, admiring the young man's sense of courtesy. It reminded him much of Ippo.  
"Take care, friend, I'll see you around," Ippo smiled, "I'll be sure to stop by your place and say hi to your family,"  
"I'll hold you to that," Umezawa said, "Anyway, take care,"  
The two of them watched as Umezawa climbed out of the ring and left the gym.  
Ippo said, "You're a very good fighter, Shinji, much better than I have ever expected,"  
"Thank you," he said.  
"That part where you punched me in the forearms," Ippo smirked, "It was an ingenious tactic on your part,"  
"I learned it from Ranma," Shinji blushed, "However, it didn't seemed like it worked against you,"  
"Don't worry. It worked a lot better than you think," Ippo smiled, "From now on, if we ever spar again, I'll be sure to be more cautious of you,"  
Shinji smiled.  
The comment meant a lot to him.

Shinji stopped by the bookstore after grabbing a quick bite to eat. It was around seven at night when he went in. Intent of finding a certain magazine, Shinji walked over to the magazine rack.  
Although Umezawa did freelance work as a boxing reporter, which struck Shinji as very odd since the man was a manga artist, Umezawa had mentioned that he also did freelance work for a martial arts magazine called 'Grandmaster', a magazine that focused mostly on martial arts but on occasions, mentioned boxing since it is considered a martial art.  
As he scanned, he noticed several anime magazines.  
Ranma would like these, Shinji thought. Plus, I can read up on what kinda manga Umezawa does.  
He grabbed a few of the magazines and held them as we continued on scanning.  
Shinji scanned through the rack, slowly sliding toward the left as he scanned through the bottom row. As he didn't he ended up accidentally bumped in to a woman.  
"Sorry," Shinji said, looking up.  
To his surprise, he found himself looking up toward the model he had bumped in the bookstore a few weeks back. She looked every bit as gorgeous as when he had first seen her that day. She had on a pair of shade that made her stand out quite a bit considering she was in a bookstore and it was night out. She was wearing a rather tight mid-thigh skirt and a low cut shirt that revealed the cleavage of her firm breasts.  
Shinji forced himself not to stare at her chest.  
He opened his mouth to comment that he knew her but said nothing. A woman as beautiful as she, would probably believe it a come on and dismiss him. He should save himself the embarrassment.  
"Shinji, right?" the woman asked, lowering her shades to reveal sparkling blue eyes.  
"Um, er, y-yeah," he said, transfixed on her eyes.  
"Do you remember me?" she asked.  
"Um, yeah. You're Melinda," he answered nervously.  
Melinda regarded Shinji for a moment. Was this the same young man she bumped in to a long time ago? He looked a bit different and carried himself differently now. Then again, she hadn't seen him in a while and people do change. What was strange was that Shinji didn't change in appearance yet it looked like something about him had changed.  
She smirked as she noticed the anime magazines in Shinji's hands. She remembered that man Ranma had had anime magazines in his hands as well. But then again, perhaps it was the other way around and Ranma had been there buying magazines for Shinji.  
"It's funny meeting you here again," Melinda said, finding it strange that she had to do the talking. Most guys usually did the work and kept the conversations going. This was hard work.  
Shinji said, "I come here every few days for magazines,"  
She gestured toward the magazines in his hands, "You mean those magazines?"  
Shinji blushed as he found himself a bit embarrassed about being caught carrying anime magazines. He didn't know why but it felt as if he got caught holding erotica magazines. "No, they're not mine," he answered, "It's for my friend,"  
Melinda smiled, "Your friend, Ranma?"  
Shinji noticed the look in Melinda's eyes. He couldn't help but snicker. Had that one brief encounter with her that day when he came in to visit Shinji made that much an impression? It was obvious it had made some form of impression since she seemed to have remembered his name. But then again, she somehow remembered Shinji's name.  
"Yeah," he shrugged.  
"I like anime," she lied. "Okay," Shinji didn't know where Melinda was going with that.  
There was a moment of awkward silence. Shinji didn't notice but Melinda sure did. She was definitely not used to it.  
Shinji went back to scanning through the magazine rack for the magazine he had come here to get. After a short moment, he found it and smiled, picking it up.  
He then looked at his watch and noticed that it was seven-thirty. Dinner would be starting soon and he should head on home. He turned toward Melinda, whom seemed to be trying to think of what to say, and said, "Well, it was nice seeing you again. I've got to get going,"  
Before Melinda had a chance to say a word, Shinji walked off, paying off his magazines before leaving the book store.  
She smirked. Ranma and Shinji were the first two people that ever brushed her off like that. She found it rather frustrating and refreshing at the same time.  
It made her realize that Ranma and Shinji saw her as something other than a hot woman to try and hook up with. She had gotten used to that form of attention. It came with the job of being very beautiful. However, the two of them made her realized that not all men are slobbering dogs that seemed to let the head between their legs do all the talking when it came to women like her.  
It was nice for a change.

Ranma was riding a bicycle.  
He narrowly missed hitting Shinji as he was on his way out of the bookstore and ended up crashing in to a telephone pole. Unfortunately, he had been riding a bit on the fast side and ended up hitting the pole with such force that it toppled forward and in to a building. Luckily, no one was in that building, it being Sunday and the store being closed.  
Shinji had this stunned look on his face as he watched Ranma getting to his feet, rubbing his nose.  
"Didn't see you coming," Ranma commented, picking the bike up and walking over to where Shinji was standing.  
"Where did you come from? And why do you have a bike?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "I was racing Priss. I bumped in to her not too long ago and challenged her to a race. I lost her a few minutes ago,"  
Shinji's right eye twitched a bit. He knew he shouldn't be surprised but he still was. Priss had even mentioned it the other day about losing to Ranma but hearing confirmed on Ranma's behalf made it all the more astonishing.  
Shinji looked down at Ranma's bike and noticed it was a woman's 10-speed bicycle, a relic in this world. It looked beat up and rusted completely, as if he had found it abandoned somewhere and had decided he wanted it for himself.  
"Um, where'd you get that?" Shinji asked.  
"I found it underwater in the river," Ranma answered.  
"How do you just 'find' it underwater in the river?" Shinji asked, getting a headache just trying to think about it.  
Ranma shrugged, "I was bored,"  
Shinji sighed. Exactly why Ranma was in a river in the first place was reason enough not to bother asking. It was Ranma, afterall.  
"Ain'phon cool?" Ranma gestured toward his newfound bike, "It's also a girl's bike too,"  
"Of all people, I figured you'd never want to be seen riding a girl's bike," Shinji commented.  
Ranma smiled, "I guess people change. Besides, I'm riding this because practicality outweighs aesthetics,"  
"What do you mean?"  
"What do you think?" Ranma looked shocked, "A girl's bike doesn't have that bar that runs from the handle bars to the seat that rams in to your groin if you fall off your seat. Frankly, I don't even wanna know why it's this way to begin with. It should be the other way. If a girl rams in to the bar, it don't hurt nearly as much as it hurts a guy,"  
Shinji scratched his head, "Um, why are you worried about something like that? You just rammed in to a telephone pole and didn't seem to get hurt from it,"  
"Ramming in to a telephone pole and getting hit in the groin is totally different," Ranma answered, "Hitting a telephone pole doesn't really hurt,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, perhaps not for you,"  
Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "So, whatcha doing here?"  
"I was getting some magazines," Shinji said, "Also, I got you some anime magazines,"  
Ranma smiled warmly, "Thanks. I really appreciate it.  
"I spoke to Akane earlier, she said something about you trying to dig a hole down to the GeoFront of this world," Shinji commented.  
Ranma nodded, "I started this morning. However, I'm taking a break. It's going to take a few days to get down there,"  
"Exactly why are you doing that?" Shinji asked curiously, "And don't tell me it's because you're bored,"  
Ranma shrugged, "If I can't say that, then there's nothing to say,"  
Shinji fell to the floor.  
At the moment, the beautiful woman emerged from the bookstore. She looked at her expensive watch and noticed that she should be heading back to her penthouse.  
"Hey, it's Melinda," Ranma commented, pointing.  
The woman looked over at was very surprised to see Ranma and Shinji. When she realized that they seemed to take no effort in approaching her, she walked over to where they were.  
"Um, good evening," she smiled.  
"Yo," Ranma said, "Whatcha doing here?"  
Shinji took the opportunity to observe Ranma as he indulged in conversation. He rarely ever saw Ranma talk to strangers and it might be a learning experience. He tried to think out the words that Ranma would say. Although Shinji could never bring himself to speak so openly, he could think of what he would say even though he wouldn't say it. That was something he still needed work on.  
"I was just in the neighborhood," she answered, "I was stopping off at the bookstore to get another magazine,"  
A magazine, what kind of magazine, Shinji thought.  
"Okay," he shrugged, "What kinda magazine?"  
"'Swimwear Illustrated'," she answered, "I did a photo shoot for them,"  
A photo shoot, huh, Shinji thought. Do you like doing those?  
"You seem like a pretty busy person," Ranma commented.  
"Not as busy as you think," she said, "My job only lasts for a few hours a day. I actually spend more time traveling from one photo shoot to another than actually doing them,"  
You must model quite a bit, huh, Shinji thought.  
"How long you been modeling?" Ranma asked.  
"Ten years," she said, "Since I was fifteen,"  
Ten years, Shinji thought. That would make you twenty five.  
"So you're twenty five, huh?" Ranma said.  
She nodded, "Yes. Um, h-how about you?"  
I really don't know, Shinji thought. I'm probably around a hundred, give or take a few years. Shinji believed that was what Ranma would say.  
Ranma laughed, "How old do you think?"  
"Twenty seven?" she guessed. Ranma shook his head, "Nope. I'm around three times that age. I think I'm somewhere around a hundred by now. I kinda lost track of how old I was when I was around forty,"  
"A hundred? Get out of here," she sounded skeptic.  
Fine, don't believe me, Shinji thought.  
"Fine, don't believe me," Ranma shrugged.  
Shinji smiled. That was the first line he thought that Ranma said. Perhaps he was starting to understand how Ranma spoke.  
"I-I didn't mean it like that," she started, feeling as if she had just offended him. She could have sworn she heard some hostility. This was the longest she had ever conversed with Ranma and she felt like she was fumbling through the conversation. Ranma looked at this watch and realized dinner would be ready.  
"Where do you live?" he asked flat-out.  
Melinda's eyes widened. Shinji was every bit as surprised. That had come totally from out of the blue. How could Ranma ask something so personal after only talking to her for only a few minutes? Could he really move that fast? Was he that good with conversing that he could bring up such a question so quickly?  
"Um, I live in Formlin Heights, the top floor," she said, not even knowing why she was divulging such information. Wasn't there some for of hierarchy of information to ask? For instance, Ranma hadn't even asked for her phone number and had simply bypassed that and went straight to finding out where she lived.  
"Oh, that's just three blocks from here," Ranma said, "Are you headed home now?"  
"Um, yes," she nodded, not even knowing what she was saying.  
"All right, we'll escort you home and then be on our way,"

"Um, how do you do it?" Shinji asked Ranma.  
The two of them walked home together after having escorted Melinda back to her apartment. Ranma, oddly enough, no longer had the bike. Shinji couldn't remember when Ranma had gotten rid of it. One second Ranma had it, another second he didn't. It was very close to seven-thirty, the usual time the household had dinner.  
When they walked her home, Shinji couldn't help but notice how well Ranma and Melinda conversed. It was as if Ranma knew exactly what to say. The one thing Shinji did notice was that Ranma seemed to dodge questions that really pertained to him, giving off very little information about himself.  
"How do I do what?" Ranma asked.  
"How does talking to women come so easy for you?" Shinji asked, "You seem to never have problems thinking of what to say when it comes to talking to girls,"  
"It's the same talking with a random as it is to you or Akane or anyone else," Ranma shrugged, "I just say whatever's on my mind.  
Shinji sighed, "I can't do that. I find myself constantly having problems thinking of what to say,"  
"Just say what's on your mind," Ranma said, "It's not that hard,"  
"But aren't you worried about what the woman would say?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma smirked, "Didn't we have this conversation before? If you're worried about what you're going to say, then don't say it. However, from my point of view, I would rather speak what's on my mind and risk offending someone every here and there than not say anything at all. That's just me,"  
Shinji sighed, "I wish being able to talk to someone comes easy like it comes to you. You think I'll be able to get good at talking to girls?"  
Ranma smirked, "You're getting there. Just give it some time,"  
Emiko's eyes almost lit up when she entered the livingroom at seven-thirty and saw Shinji sitting there on the couch reading a magazine. Lina had been there as well but Emiko seemed to ignore her presence or not even realize she was there.  
"Hi, Shinji," Emiko said. She had been feeling a bit down the weekend but suddenly felt happy.  
"Oh, hey, Emiko," Shinji said, looking up from his magazine.  
"When's dinner ready? I'm starving," Asuka commented as she and Luna and Rei also entered the livingroom.  
"How was your trip to the amusement park?" Shinji asked to none of them in particular.  
Asuka grinned, "It was fun, because you weren't there,"  
Emiko narrowed her eyes toward Asuka while no one was looking. However, even though Luna wasn't looking, she noticed the acidic look Emiko gave Asuka.  
This made her smile a bit. She had talked to Ranma the other day and he had mentioned that Emiko had bought a book on relationships. Emiko's subconscious reaction to Asuka's comment made it seem like Emiko liked Shinji more than she even realized.  
"We had fun," Luna spoke on all their behalf, "It would've been nice if you came along,"  
"Perhaps another time," Shinji said. Having been there before with Meito and Sumi, Shinji figured he didn't miss much.

new stuff 9/20

Shinji entered the dojo at around eight-thirty, done with dinner and ready for his sparring session against Ranma.  
Only expecting to see only see Ranma, Shinji was surprised to see Emiko there instead.  
"Hey, Emiko," he said.  
"Hey, Shinji," she smiled.  
"Whatcha doing here?" he asked, approaching her. It was dark in the dojo and Shinji couldn't help but notice how Emiko's skin seemed to glow against the moonlight filtering in through the open windows.  
Emiko said, "Um, no reason. I figured since you and Ranma are always constantly sparring around now, I can observe for a change,"  
Shinji became nervous, "W-watch us?"  
Having never been watched by anyone other than Akane, Shinji was not used to being observed.  
However, he suddenly came to realized that Emiko had watched him spar several time in the gym against boxing opponents like Oki. The realization of this made him feel less nervous about being watched. "Guess, what?" he said.  
"What?"  
"I went to the gym today," he began, "While there, I met Umezawa a reported for a boxing magazine. I also ended up sparring against Ippo and managed to hit him a couple of times before he got serious,"  
Emiko didn't hear past the first comment. She had this sad look in her eyes, "Y-you went to the gym without me?"  
"Um, well, yeah, but that's because you weren't around," Shinji said, "You were at the amusement park with Luna and the others. If I knew you when you were going to be home, I would've waited for you until you got back so we can go together,"  
Emiko seemed surprised, "R-really? You'd do that? Wait for me?"  
Shinji nodded, "Of course. Actually, now that I think about it. I feel kinda bad because you've waited up for me as well, like that time when I showed up over an hour late because I was visiting Linna,"  
Emiko felt a sense of happiness, "Oh, it's no problem. Um, so, you fought against Ippo? How did you do?"  
Shinji shook his head, but he did have a smile on his face, "Not so good. However, I did manage to hit him a few times,"  
"You managed to hit him?" Emiko's eyes widened, "I remember seeing Ippo sparring against that other guy. He's very good. Um, no offense, but how did you manage to actually hit him?"  
Emiko was fast and even she had trouble believing she could hit him even with that speed of hers.  
"I dunno," Shinji smiled, "I think it's because we sparred shortly after I came in to the gym so I wasn't tired from training for the past two hours,"  
"That's very impressive," Emiko said.  
"Thanks," Shinji smiled.  
Emiko blushed slightly when she noticed how nice a smile Shinji had. She had never noticed that before now.

For the next week, Shinji found himself teaching martial arts class all day. His morning consisted of him waking up at eight in the morning. He had trouble waking up earlier than his usual time for school. However, he forced himself up and eventually got used to rising early after a few days.  
Shinji found himself less and less nervous with every passing day. He started getting used to teaching. This surprised even him. Although he was constantly nervous when he found the class full of student watching him and awaiting instructions, he found himself stammering much less, his nervousness much less visible.  
The students had a profound respect for Shinji, Shinji teaching them techniques neither Ranma nor Akane taught them. The young girls in the class found themselves taking a liking too him as well. Of course, they never did anything about it besides admiring him from afar.  
Oki continued to take classes, usually practicing along with Emiko after Shinji had demonstrated a technique to clppos Emiko had started taking classes for some odd reason Shinji couldn't understand. However, he realized that even Emiko was learning.  
Although Emiko was an excellent martial artist to begin with, she had very little grappling experience. She was very much a beginner. Actually, everyone in the entire dojo save for Akane and Ranma and Shinji had any true grappling experience. Oki stayed only for the first two classes, leaving at noon to go to the gym to train. Since classes lasted until later in the day, Shinji couldn't go to the gym until four.  
"Emiko, why not go to the gym with Oki?" Shinji asked her the first day he was teaching, "You don't need to stay here and wait for me to finish up. I don't mind going alone,"  
"Oh no, it's fine," she blushed, "I-I don't mind going to the gym later,"  
"Um, okay," Shinji said, "It's just that I figure you're used to going there at noon now or at least earlier in the day. If you wait for me to finish teaching classes, then you won't get to go until around four,"  
"I don't mind," she said.  
"Um, okay," Shinji said.  
At the end of teaching classes, Shinji and Emiko headed to gym together. As they did, they stopped and got a quick meal along the way. During one of those days, they had mentioned about how hot it was getting this summer.  
"I haven't been to the beach in so long," Shinji commented, "If it continues to get hot, I'll definitely be going this summer. Heck, have you been to the beach yet on this world? It's really good. We can all go together,"  
"T-together? As in just you and me?" Emiko blushed.  
"That too," Shinji said, "However, I meant everyone. Y'know, Ranma, Akane, Priss, Misato, and everyone else interested in going. I remember when we went to the beach a few years ago. It was really fun,"  
"R-really?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, we played beach volleyball and Frisbee and went swimming,"  
"I've never been to the beach on this world before," Emiko commented, "I wouldn't mind going,"  
"Well, it's not that hot out now," Shinji said, "However, if it does get hotter, we should go,"  
"Promise,"  
"Huh?" Shinji was confused.  
"Um, I mean, if it gets hot, can we make a plan to go to the beach?" she asked.  
"Sure," he shrugged, "I don't see a problem in that. However, I dunno what Ranma and the others would think. They're busy and I doubt everyone'll be able to go. However, we should leave it up to Ranma to coming up with the plan since he can probably bring everything together,"  
"Oh, um, I guess you have a point," she said with a bit of a sigh.  
Shinji's and Emiko's training at the gym had remained the same. Although Shinji had showed an amazing ability to fight when not fatigued from training, Ippo had him continue to spar at the end of the training. However, since Oki wasn't there to be his partner, him having trained there earlier in the day, Ippo had one of the pro gym patron spar against Shinji.  
Funnily enough, Shinji ended up sparring against Ko, the first guy he sparred against a while back. Ever since the incident when Ko had lost in a humiliating fashion against Shinji, vomiting in the middle of the ring, Ko had started training harder than he had ever trained before. When Shinji and Ko fought, Shinji had been in for a rude awakening and was beaten down to a pulp. It seemed the loss had spurred Ko to train hard to beat Shinji in a sparring rematch one day. "You okay, Stumble?" Ko helped Shinji out that first day after beating Shinji.  
Shinji got back up to his feet, a bit disoriented from that final hook punch he took and said, "Yeah, I'm fine,"  
"Thanks," Ko smiled.  
"Thanks, for what?" Shinji asked, curious.  
Ko commented, "It bothered the hell outta me how easily you beat me. The fact that you're not even a pro was even more humiliating. When you beat me that badly, it made me realized that I needed to be brought down a peg or two and that my ego was getting the better of me. Thanks for showing me that. I appreciate it,"  
"Um, s-sure. N-no problem," Shinji said nervously, shocked.  
Ko managed to beat Shinji four more times before Shinji adapted and defeated him. It seemed that Shinji had gotten used to fighting someone of Oki's speed and lack of power. When he ended up fighting someone of Ko's power, he was unused to it and had to adjust. Before long, Shinji was able to get used to the fact that Ko wasn't as fast as Oki but was a whole lot more powerful. Having realized that his power was useless if he couldn't hit his opponent, Ko's speed had increased greatly since then, having worked on speed bag more often than punching bag. After their training, Shinji and Emiko headed home together. Arriving home at around six-thirty, Shinji spent his time taking a shower and cooling down from training afterwards.  
After dinner, Shinji and Ranma would go about with their sparring session. At the conclusion of on of their sparring sessions, Ranma seemed to be very satisfied with Shinji's progress in teaching.  
"How're you enjoying teaching class?" Ranma asked.  
"I don't mind it," Shinji answered, "I still get nervous though,"  
"But you're handling the nervousness quite well," Ranma commented.  
"Thanks," Shinji said, "I think I'm starting to get used to it. Oh yeah, whatever happened to you and that hole you were digging in the backyard? I notice it's been filled up,"  
Ranma shrugged, "I never made it to GeoFront,"  
"Really, what stopped you?" Shinji asked.  
"There's a massive steel plate, that's why," Ranma said, "It's probably around twenty feet thick,"  
Shinji was confused, "So? Stuff like that shouldn't stop you,"  
Ranma nodded, "True. However, I didn't want to blow through the steel plate because I had every intention of filling the hole back in after I made it down there. The problem is that if I blew through that plate, there's no way to repair it so when I do start filling the hole up, the dirt'll just fall down in to GeoFront through that opening,"  
"Why were you doing that in the first place?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma shrugged, "No real reason,"  
"Okay," Shinji said, "Oh, I've been noticing that's it's been getting hotter and hotter lately. Is there a chance we'll be going to the beach?"  
"I dunno," Ranma said, "It's not that hot out. If it gets really hot, then I don't see why not. Why?"  
"Well, Emiko and I were talking and figured we should all go to the beach on day," Shinji stated, "It'd be nice. I don't think any of us have gone to the beach in a while,"  
"You and Emiko, huh?" Ranma smirked, "Well, I really dunno. If you two are up to going, then go right ahead. I just think it should be hotter out before any of us go,"  
"You've got a point," Shinji said, "I figured we'd all go one day. Not anytime soon since it's not hot enough, but if it does,"  
"I understand," Ranma said, "We'll see how the weather is in several weeks from now. If it's hot enough to go to the beach, then let's all make a plan to go,"  
"Cool," Shinji smiled.  
Shinji, free after his sparring session, usually lounged around, watching television when it wasn't being used by Lina, surfing the internet, or reading a book, until he got tired and went to sleep, repeating the same process all over again the next day until the end of the week.

Before Shinji knew it, the week was over and he didn't need to teach the whole day. His obligation to teaching for taking Saturday off to go to Kyoto had been filled.  
"You're getting used to teaching," Ranma said, approaching Shinji early one Monday morning, "You're doing really well,"  
Shinji had been in the dojo early, waiting for the students to arrive for their morning class.  
Shinji nodded, "Thanks,"  
"Your friend, Oki is coming along fine, too," Ranma commented, "He's got a lot of talent,"  
"Well, he does know Mui Thai Kickboxing," Shinji commented, "He's already got martial arts experience,"  
Ranma asked, "Have you ever thought about learning from Oki? I'm sure he could teach you a lot,"  
"Really?" Shinji said, "You think I should?"  
"Sure, why not?" Ranma said, "It'll help make you more of a well-rounded fighter. I'm sure you're not used to using knees or elbows in a fight. Learning so will give you a larger arsenal of attacks to use,"  
"You've got a point,"  
"It'll also help strengthen your shins," Ranma said, "That way, you can use your shins to block kicks. Doing so turns a defensive posture in to an offensive on,"  
"What do you mean?"  
"Ippo is like that," Ranma smirked, "His defense is actually a weapon. His forearms are like steel and it hurts your hand when you hit it. Because of that, it basically neutralizes your punches,"  
Ranma, having been explained in detail about Shinji's and Ippo's sparring session, had realized that that was one of Ippo's unique ability, his super hard forearms.  
"Wow, you definitely have a point," Shinji said, "Every time I punch him and he blocks, it hurts my hand. After a while, I find myself reluctant to punch him because I'm worried about him blocking it,"  
Ranma nodded, "Right. However, you should learn the defensive aspect from Oki first. What I mean is learn how to strengthen your shins so that you can use them to block kicks. There's no need to worry about how to elbow or knee someone, at least not right away,"  
"Okay," Shinji said, "I can do that,"  
"Ah, speak of the devil," Ranma grinned.  
Entering the dojo a bit early for his morning classes, Oki approached Ranma and Shinji. He was clad in a dogi and usually showed up early so that he could chat with his friend Shinji for around ten minutes before his friend needed to teach class.  
"Morning, Shinji," Oki said, bowing.  
"Morning," Shinji replied.  
"G'morning, Ranma," Oki bowed toward Ranma.  
Oki had a great respect for Ranma. Although he never saw Ranma fight, he knew Ranma was the most powerful martial artist he would ever come across in his life. One of these days, he hoped to see just how powerful a fighter Ranma was.  
"G'morning, Oki," Ranma smiled, "You're just the person I was looking for,"  
"Oh?"  
"I like your progress in class," Ranma said, "You're coming along fine,"  
"T-thank you," Oki blushed, "I try my best,"  
Ranma grinned, "I'd like you to do me a favor,"  
"Sure," Oki seemed eager.  
"Attack me," Ranma said.  
"What?" Oki's eyes widened.  
Ranma smiled, "I'd like you to kick me as hard as you can,"  
"But-" Oki began.  
"Now!" Ranma shouted.  
Oki, not wanting to upset Ranma, executed a vicious roundhouse right toward Ranma's ribs. Unfortunately, Ranma stood on one leg as he raised a leg and exposed his shin a split second before the roundhouse connected.  
Oki's shin struck Ranma's shin. A bolt of pain shot up Oki's leg as he quickly brought the leg down and began rubbing his shin rigorously.  
Ranma brought his leg down, "You okay, Oki?"  
"Y-yeah," Oki said after a minute. He pulled the dogi pants leg up and looked at his shin. Ranma turned toward Shinji, "Y'see? If you can't dodge a kick, block it using your shin," He turned toward Oki, "Kick me again,"  
"D-do I hafta?" Oki asked reluctantly. His shin still hurt.  
Ranma chuckled, "Nah. I was just trying to prove a point. Anyway, Shinji, as you can tell, what I just did was simply block his incoming kick with my shin. Because I've got a really strong shin, it hurt him which would make him more reluctant to kick me again. In a way, I basically neutralized Oki's use of kicks,"  
Oki stood back up, stamping his leg a few times to get the slight remnants of pain that lingered. The block had definitely caused him to wince from the pain.  
"Ranma's right," Oki gave a meek smile, "After that painful experience, I'll definitely be reluctant to kicking him if that's what's in store for me,"  
Ranma smiled at Oki, "Can you teach Shinji to block a kick like the way I blocked your kick?"  
"Yeah, I'll try,"

It was only eleven in the morning, Shinji done teaching with his first class, the only class he was expected to teach on a regular basis. This freed up his afternoon so that he could resume training at Makunouchi Gym at noontime with Oki.  
He and Oki were in the backyard and in front of a thick wooden pole that was sticking out from the ground. Ranma had put that in the morning, after his talk with Shinji and Oki, so that Shinji could start training right away.  
Shinji sat down on the floor and looked at his shin. It was black and blue and bleeding.  
For only two minutes, Shinji had been kicking at a small pole with his shin.  
"I give up," Shinji said, "No more,"  
Oki sat down next to Shinji, "I know. It's really painful doing that. However, doing so numbs the nerves around your shin which will enable you to take pain for when you hafta block a kick like Ranma showed,"  
"It really really hurts," Shinji said, "Just the mere thought of my shin hitting the wooden pole makes me cringe in pain,"  
Oki laughed, "What, you're giving up already? You're gonna give up before you can break that pole?"  
Shinji's pride kicked in as he got back up to his feet.  
"What, you think I can't do it?" Shinji felt challenged.  
Oki grinned, "Yeah, I think you can't do it. I think you're too much of a sissy to undergo this kinda training,"  
Shinji sat back down, "You're right,"  
The two of them burst out laughing.

new stuff 9/21

About to head out for his jog with Emiko after a long stretching session, Shinji noticed a magazine sitting on a chair over in the corner of the gym. Curious as to what it was, he walked over to where it was and picked it up, Emiko following him.  
"What's that?" she asked as Shinji picked the magazine up.  
Shinji looked through it for a moment, "A weekly movie magazine," "Oh," she said.  
Shinji leafed through out for a minute. It made him curious as to what new movies were out. He hadn't been to the movies in a while, not since the time he bumped in to Sumi there.  
"Did 'Fighting Fate' come out yet?" Shinji asked.  
Emiko nodded, "Yes. I saw a commercial for it this morning before when came to the gym, "It came out on Friday. I don't really know what's it about though,"  
"I don't really know either," Shinji said, "It's supposed to be some kind of action movie with really good special effects. I remember when I saw the commercial for it and it caught my attention. It came out Friday you say?"  
Emiko nodded.  
"Cool," Shinji said, "That looks like it's a good movie. Hey, would you be interested in seeing it?"  
"M-me? A-as in the two of us?" Emiko asked.  
Shinji thought nothing of it and said, "Sure. We'll get outta here at around two to two-thirty. There'll probably be a showing then. And since the movie theatre is on the way home, that's even better. However, if you're busy, then I can go alone,"  
"Um, no," she said, "I don't mind. I-I'd love to,"  
"Are you sure? You're not busy?" he asked, "I know how you usually spar against Asuka at around the time when you get back,"  
"No, it's fine," Emiko said, very happy all of a sudden.  
Shinji thought aloud, "I wonder if I should call home. I know Ranma isn't interested in it. The movie sounds like the title of his life. Besides, he doesn't like movies. Akane and the others might be interested,"  
Emiko's lips became a thin line. Would it seem selfish not to have Akane and the others go along?  
"I'll be right back," Shinji said, "I'm going to call and ask if they're interested,"  
"O-okay," Emiko seemed disappointed.  
Shinji walked over to the corner of the gym where there was a pay phone and dialed in the number for home.  
Akane was about to head out to get some groceries when the phone rang. Unable to let the answering machine answer the call, she picked it up after the second ring.  
"Hello?" she said.  
"Akane? It's Shinji," Shinji recognized her voice.  
"Hey, Shinji," Akane said, "What's up?"  
"I was calling to see if you or anyone home was interested in seeing a movie," came Shinji's voice, "Emiko and I were gonna go see 'Fighting Fate' at around two-thirty or so and was wondering if any of you wanted to see it,"  
Akane smirked, "You and Emiko, huh?"  
"Yeah," Shinji seemed oblivious to Akane's grin, "We decided on the spot. We figure we'd call you a couple of hours early, so it'll give you or anyone else time to get ready, so it won't seem like a last-minute decision,"  
"You're in luck. Everyone's home. Hold on one second," Akane said, "I'll go ask them if they're interested,"  
"Thanks," Shinji said.  
Akane closed her hand over the received and just stood there for a minute. As she did, Asuka came around the corner, heading for the kitchen for a light snack.  
"Who's that on the phone?" Asuka asked curiously.  
Akane smirked, "Just a telemarketer. They asked for Ranma. I'm just making them waste their time by pretending I'm getting him. I'm just listening to see how long it'll take before the person on the other line realizes that he's wasting his time and hanging up,"  
Asuka snickered, "Okay,"  
Satisfied with Akane's answer, Asuka walked by and went in to the kitchen. Akane waited for another minute before she brought the receiver back up to the side of her head and said, "No. It seems like no one's interested,"  
"Are you sure?" Shinji asked.  
"I just asked them," Akane said, making her voice sound slightly annoyed.  
"Okay, I'm sorry," Shinji apologized, "Um, what about you?"  
"Nah, movies is not my thing," Akane lied, "You two go ahead and enjoy the movie,"  
"Um, okay," Shinji said.  
"Thanks for asking though," Akane said, "I hope you two enjoy the movies,"  
"Thanks for asking the other. I appreciate it," Shinji said sincerely.  
"Bye," she said.  
"Bye," Shinji said before hanging up.  
After Akane hung up the phone, Asuka came walking back down the hallway.  
"Have you ever heard of 'Fighting Fate'?" Akane asked, curiously.  
Asuka's eyes widened, "Of course. That movie came out Friday. I'm dying to see it. Heck, Lina and Luna saw the commercials for it and expressed interest in seeing it. What, are you planning on going? Can I come with you?"  
Akane shook here head, "Nah. I was just curious about it, that's all,"  
"Oh,"  
Akane smirked, "Man, I'm glad I was the one that answered the phone,"  
"Huh?"  
"Nevermind," Akane smiled.  
"Um, okay," Asuka shrugged and went about her merry way.  
Back at the gym, Shinji hung up the phone and turned toward Emiko.  
"W-well? What did they say?" Emiko asked, a bit hopeful still.  
Shinji shook his head, "None. None of them seem interested in going," "Really?" Emiko's eyes widened, barely able to contain her happiness. However, Shinji didn't seem to notice.  
"Akane asked everyone and they said they're not interested," Shinji said, "I guess it would be just the two of us,"  
"I don't mind," Emiko said, "I'm fine with it,"  
"Okay," he said, "Well, I guess now that we've got that settled, I guess we should start our roadwork,"  
"Sure,"

"You're doing really well," Emiko commented.  
"Thanks," Shinji said, breathing a heavily.  
Shinji and Emiko was in the middle of their eighth lap. Shinji had improved so much over time that he was no able to do ten laps around the block with moderate trouble.  
"I feel bad that I'm slowing you down," Shinji commented, "I've never even seen you break a sweat doing roadwork,"  
"Don't worry," Emiko said sincerely, "I definitely don't mind. Um, j-jogging with someone makes it more enjoyable,"  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess you have a point. I like jogging with you,"  
Emiko blushed.  
"It's nice being able to talk with someone while jogging," Shinji commented, "It helps pass the time. Y'know what's very funny? I remember when I first talked to Ranma, I was shocked at how he could jog twenty miles on a daily basis. I'm halfway up to what he does. Jogging twenty miles doesn't seem quite as impressive as when I first thought about it. It's still amazing, but it doesn't seem quite as inhumanly hard as I thought. At the rate I'm going, I should be able to do that before my pro-test,"  
"I'm sure you will," Emiko smiled.

Shinji and Emiko were together. Finished with their training, the two of them were walking toward the deli to get some food before they head over to the movie theatre.  
"Hey, Wei," Shinji smiled, greeting the deli owner by name as the two of them entered.  
"Hey, Shinji. Hey, Emiko," the man smiled, "The usual?"  
Shinji looked at Emiko, who nodded, before turning back to Wei, "Yeah, please,"  
As the man went about preparing their order, Emiko couldn't help but make a comment on how much more outgoing Shinji was.  
"You're changing," she started off.  
"Changing for the better I hope," he smiled.  
Emiko giggled.

Shinji and Emiko arrived at the movie theatre at around ten minutes before the movie was expected to start.  
"Perfect timing," Shinji commented.  
He took out enough money for both him and Emiko and walked up to the ticket booth. It only took him a moment to recognize that ticket girl was the same girl that he saw the first time he was there.  
"Two tickets for the two-forty showing of 'Fighting Fate'," he said. "I'll need to see your identification please," the girl said, "Hey, wait, aren't you that guy that beat that guy up right in front of here not too long ago?"  
Shinji blushed, "Um, y-yeah,"  
"Wow, that was amazing what you did," the girl said, "I was in my booth when I saw what happened. You had that guy on his hands and knees,"  
"Um, h-he provoked me," Shinji continued to blush, feeling a bit good about himself. He and Tou had had a confrontation right in front of the movie theatre, when Tou jumped to conclusion and punched Shinji. Tou had messed with the wrong guy and had learned the hard way.  
"I'm Ami," the girl said, "What's your name?"  
"Um, I-I'm Shinji," he said nervously.  
"It's nice meeting you," the girl said, "Um, are you here with anyone?"  
Emiko stepped forward to stand next to Shinji, giving the girl and acidic glare. The girl, unaware that Shinji had come with someone in the first place, suddenly realized she had wandered in to another woman's territory.  
Shinji, unaware of what was going on, place a shoulder on Emiko's shoulder, "I'm here with her, Emiko,"  
Emiko blushed a dark shade of red. It was a combination of things that made her blush more than usual. Shinji's hand on her shoulder felt hot to the touch. The jealous glance she noticed that girl was casting her. And the fact that Shinji had said that she and he were together. They were three main factors.  
"Um, I'm sorry," the girl said, "I didn't realize you two were together,"  
The girl quickly took the money that was laid out in front of her and handed Shinji the two tickets.  
"Um, thanks," Shinji said, taking the ticket, "Um, it was nice meeting you, Ami,"  
"Um, likewise," the girl dared to say.  
She watched as Shinji and Emiko headed in to the movie theatre together.  
"Damn, she's lucky,"

Emiko gasped as Shinji yawned right next to her. She remembered reading about that in that relationship book she had bought. The guy usually placed his arm around the girl when they went to see a movie together. Although cheesy, the guy usually yawned, stretching his arm up. He would then casually put in down and around the girl's shoulder.  
When Shinji brought his arm back down and by his side, failing to put his arm around Emiko, she felt a bit disappointed.  
She sighed.  
"Something the matter?" Shinji asked, having heard her sigh.  
"Um, n-nothing," she said, grateful that it was dark in the theatre so he couldn't see her blush.  
"Okay," he turned back to the theatre.  
Emiko found it a bit chilly in the theatre. It was significantly cooler in the theatre than outside. She had never known that. When she glanced over at Shinji and noticed that he seemed perfectly fine, she wondered why she was a bit cold.  
Shinji noticed Emiko shivering in her seat. He knew why. It was because she had been drinking her ice cold bottled water and it made her body temperature drop which led her to feel cold.  
He looked down at himself. Since it was summer and hot out, he didn't wear any extra layers of clothes. Therefore, he had none that he could give to her, not even an extra shirt.  
She's a friend, Shinji thought. I should put my arm around her. It might help keep her warm. But we're not a couple and only couples should put their arms around each other, right? Wait, Ranma does that all the time with the girls when he watches television in the livingroom with them. Therefore, I should be able to do that without much worry. Heart racing, Shinji turned toward Emiko, "Are you cold?"  
Emiko took a moment to say before she said, "Um, a little," She felt a bit bad that she was showing weakness in front of someone but she had gotten used to Shinji seeing her weaknesses before, like her ignorance to mundane things about this world.  
"Um, w-would you want me to put my arm around you?" he asked. He saw Emiko as a friend and didn't want her to think he was coming on to her. He figured if he asked, it would indicate that it was no form of come-on on his behalf, that he was just trying to be nice.  
"Um, o-okay," she said, her heart skipping a beat.  
Shinji's heart was beating faster than it had ever beat before as he nervously raise his one arm and placed it over Emiko's shoulder. When he did, he could definitely feel Emiko's shoulders become stiff for a moment. However, after minute, they seemed to relax. Before long, her shivering stopped.  
The two of them watched the movie together, Shinji's arm around her. Emiko dared to breath after a good minute. She became very aware of Shinji's arm around her and his closeness. He was so close that should could smell the faint smell of his perspiration that had soaked in to his shirt. She also realized that she no longer felt cold. Rather, she felt the opposite, as if she were burning up.  
Shinji's arm is around me, Emiko thought. What do I do now? What did that relationship book say that I'm r, eosed to do? I can't remember.  
After a good five minutes, Emiko remembered. Nervously, she titled her head over toward the side and brought it to rest by the crook of Shinji's shoulder and neck. She sensed him tensing up for a brief moment but eventually relax.  
Shinji was very aware of Emiko's closeness. He was also aware of how nice her hair smelled.  
There was one thing he was very aware of.  
Emiko's head fit perfectly in that crook.

At around five in the afternoon, Shinji and Emiko emerged from the movie theatre.  
"So, whatcha think about the movie?" Shinji asked "It was really great," Emiko answered, "Those, what do you call them, special effect? They were amazing. I really liked the movie. How about you?"  
"I agree. The effects were great," Shinji commented, "I really liked it,"  
The two of them walked down the street together. They indulged in conversation about the movie, Emiko asking a few questions as to why some of the character did what they did and Shinji answering them to the best of his abilities. As they walked together, Shinji stopped in front of a small stand that was doing a raffling. It was one of those booths that had a box that contained colored balls where a person had to spin a small lever next to the box. Doing so caused a colored ball to pop out of a small opening in the box.  
"Hm, I never saw this here before," Shinji said, scratching his head.  
"This raffle only lasts until the end of this week," the person manning the both commented.  
"Whatcha raffling off?" Shinji asked.  
"If you get a white ball, you win the grand prize, an all expense-paid trip for two to 'Doll Inn', a hot spring bath house," the man said, "Second prize is an all expense-paid dinner for two at 'Pour Deux', a French gourmet restaurant. And the third prize is an all expense-paid trip for two to MegaTokyo planetarium,"  
Emiko got a great idea.  
"Let's try," she said in an eager voice.  
Shinji, noticing that she seemed eager to give the raffle a try, figured it couldn't hurt to try.  
He checked through his wallet, "How much per go at the prize?"  
"Five hundred yen each," the man said.  
Shinji fished out five hundred yen and gave it to the man and gestured toward Emiko, "Go ahead, give it a try,"  
"Um, t-thanks," Emiko said, a bit flushed.  
Emiko reached out to grab the level to give it a quick spin.  
"Wait!" Shinji said, which startled Emiko.  
"What?" Emiko thought she did something wrong.  
Shinji smirked, "Ranma taught me something, that there's this weird law of the universe that usually works in your favor if you know what you to do,"  
Emiko looked a bit confused. She scratched her head and asked, "What do you mean? What law of the universe?"  
Shinji chuckled, "I think it's because Ranma watches to much anime that he believes that the laws that apply to anime actually apply to real life,"  
"Okay, I'm still confused," she said.  
"I hope we don't win," Shinji stated loudly.  
"What?" Emiko was surprised at the comment, "Why don't you want to win?"  
Shinji said, "You're wrong. I do want to win. However, Ranma believes that if you act like you don't want to win, then you'll actually win,"  
The man laughed. He had seen many people do weird things as a form of good luck and upping their chancing of winning but this, by far, took the cake.  
Emiko shrugged, "All right. I guess I'll go along,"  
"I hope we don't win," the both of them said as Emiko spun the lever. They both then stepped back to see what kind of colored ball would pop out. To their surprise, and the man's surprise as well, the colored ball for the grand prize came out.  
"Well, I'll be damn," Shinji said, "It works,"  
The man's jaw dropped to the floor. Emiko seemed to be flabbergasted.  
The man seemed to be very shocked. There was no ball in the box for a grand prize to begin with. The box was fixed so that people only had a chance at winning the third prize.  
"Can I try again?" Shinji asked, producing another five hundred yen from his wallet.  
"Um, s-sure," the man said, dumbfounded.  
"I hope we don't win again," the two of them said in unison as Emiko gave the lever another turn.  
To their surprise, the colored ball for the third prize popped out.  
"Well, I'll be damned, it worked again," Shinji smirked, "It seems like Ranma's theory actually works,"  
Shinji fetched out another five hundred yen, "Let's win ourselves the second prize,"  
"No!" the man said, refusing to accept the money, "You guys won enough,"  
"But there's still a second prize to win," Shinji said.  
"No!" the man said, "No more winnings for you!"  
The old Shinji would had sheepishly walked away, not wanting a confrontation. However, he was no longer that old Shinji. Shinji stood his ground.  
"Why am I not allowed?" Shinji asked, narrowing his eyes. Emiko found herself a bit amazed seeing this. Shinji looked very firm.  
"Because it's fixed and you're not supposed to win the grand prize," the man answered. When he realized what he had said, he quickly closed his mouth with his hands.  
Shinji narrowed his eyes, "You better not expect us to give back our prizes. We won fair and square,"  
The man gulped.  
"We'll tell the authorities if you don't give us our prizes," Shinji said.  
"N-no need to do that," the man pleaded.

Shinji had the big smile on his face as he and Emiko walked home.  
"Wow, I can't believe it," Shinji said, "This is the first time I ever put my foot down so firmly,"  
"How do you feel?" Emiko smiled, feeling good that Shinji was feeling so good.  
"It feels great!" Shinji said happily, "I never felt this before and it feels really good. I can definitely get used to it. Man, my heart was pounding and I was really nervous. However, it wasn't all for nothing. In the end, the guy folded and gave us our prizes,"  
Emiko smiled warmly.  
"I didn't want that guy stepping over me," Shinji said, "I had a funny feeling that when he said the raffle was fixed, he would refuse to give us the prize that we weren't supposed to win,"  
Emiko wondered how she would have handled such a situation. She would have probably done the same thing as Shinji and stood her ground. However, she had no real idea what she would had done.  
"C'mon, let's head back,"

"Guess what?" Shinji asked Ranma as they circled one another in the dojo that night.  
"Um, Tou got outta jail and now he's out for your head?" Ranma guessed.  
"What? R-really?"  
"They're making an anime about my adventures and calling it 'Just Won't Die' since my adventures are just that, that they just won't die?" Ranma guessed.  
"Huh?"  
"My God-self is going to come after me and try and kill me?" Ranma continued to guess.  
"Um..."  
"That we are actually anime characters?" Ranma guess.  
"What the heck are you talking about?" Shinji became frustrated.  
Ranma grinned, "Hey, you asked me to guess. I made a few guesses,"  
"So they were all guesses?" Shinji asked, "Tou isn't outta jail or something, right?"  
Ranma shrugged, "Not that I know of. I was merely making random guesses at stuff,"  
Shinji scratched his head, "Actually, the last commented should've made me realize you're just teasing me with random guess. Heh, us being anime characters,"  
"Hey, y'never know," Ranma said, "It'd be pretty cool if we were," Shinji became silent for a moment before he said, "Speaking of which, it's really funny that you mention about anime. One of your so called anime theories actually worked,"  
"Huh? Whatcha mean?" Ranma asked.  
Shinji reached in to his pocket and produced four tickets. He handed them to Ranma.  
Ranma inspected the tickets and noticed two of them were for 'Doll Inn' and two of them were for a planetarium.  
"What's this for?" Ranma asked.  
"Emiko and I won them using one of your anime theories," Shinji said, still a bit dumbfounded, "We were at a raffle and we acted like we didn't want to win and we won. Just like how one of your theories talked about how you usually get an outcome the exact opposite of what you want, it worked and we won,"  
"Y'see," Ranma smirked, "I'm not some crazy person for thinking something like this. I really think I have something here,"  
"It's probably pure coincidence," Shinji commented. However, even he had a bit of trouble believing the odds of winning two prizes in a row.  
Ranma shook his head, "No. There's some higher force out there. I'm sure of it,"  
"You mean Urd?" Shinji smirked.  
Ranma scratched his head, "Um, well, I guess. Then again, there could be someone higher up than Urd that is causing this,"  
"Higher than Urd? Who would that be? She's God," Shinji said, "You can't get any higher up than God,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Perhaps you have a point. Here, lettme try something out. I am in love with-"  
A chicken flew in through one of the open windows and hit him in the side of the head. It fell to the floor where Ranma picked it up.  
"Hey, Urd, is this your idea?" Ranma said upward as it toward the sky.  
Shinji looked like he was getting freaked out. Sure, he was used to seeing really weird things happening when Ranma was around, but never had he seen something as asinine as a chicken interrupting someone in mid-sentence.  
"The funny thing is is that this has occurred even before Urd was God," Ranma said, "So there's definitely something up with the universe,"  
"Um, o-okay," Shinji felt the need to run screaming out of the dojo.  
Ranma seemed more weird than usual.  
"Look, that's besides the point," Ranma said, "Anyway, I'm glad you won those tickets. What do you plan on doing with them?"  
"I dunno," Shinji said, "Emiko and I basically won 'em together. I guess we'll both be using them,"  
"You're gonna be going to the planetarium together?" Ranma asked.  
Shinji shrugged, "Sure. I don't see why not. I don't mind going just with her. We went to the movies together so why should it be any different form going to the planetarium together,"  
"Movies together? When?" Ranma asked.  
"Today," Shinji said, "Dontcha remember? I called and Akane asked you if you wanted to go see 'Fighting Fate' and you and the others said you weren't interested,"  
"Oh yeah, I forgot," Ranma said. He recalled Akane mentioning that to him a few hours ago. It was best to go along with the plan. "Um, I dunno about the other two tickets, the one two 'Doll Inn'," Shinji said, blushing slightly, "It's for an overnight stay at an inn located by a hot spring,"  
Ranma smirked, "You guys won those tickets. You guys use them,"  
"But this is for an overnight stay at an inn," Shinji continued to blush.  
Ranma laughed, "Ah, I get it. You're worried that you can't control yourself and'll jump Emiko,"  
"I would never do such a thing!" Shinji blushed. It wasn't until Ranma mentioned that did those thoughts cross his minds.  
"So what's there to worry about?" Ranma asked.  
Shinji became silent.  
Ranma extended his hand, "If you don't want to use 'em, give 'em to me. I'm sure I can find good use in 'em,"  
"I gotta ask Emiko if she wants to give 'em away," Shinji said, "She was the one that won 'em so it's actually hers,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Okay,"  
"I'll asked her later," Shinji said, "After we finished sparring,"  
"Right," Ranma nodded.  
The two of them got in to the battle stance. After a moment, Shinji noticed something very odd.  
"Um, weren't you holding a chicken in your hand?" Shinji asked, "What the heck happened to it?"  
"Y'see! There's definitely something up with this world!"

"No need to worry about the tickets," Ranma said later that night.  
"Whatcha mean?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma answered, "I talked to the others. Everyone's interested in going to the inn. In a way, it'll be a family trip. We'll come with you to the inn,"  
"Really?" Shinji found himself looking forward to going to the inn now.  
Ranma smirked. He knew why Shinji was reluctant about going to the inn with just Emiko. It would only be the two of them and they would be spending the night at the inn together. It would make the trip very awkward since it was a trip meant for couples and Shinji didn't view them both as a couple. "We can all go in the weekend," Ranma said.  
"Cool," Shinji smiled.  
"What's strange is that 'Doll Inn' sounds strangely familiar," Ranma couldn't help but comment.  
"Whatcha mean?" Shinji asked.  
"Nevermind," "There will be no classes this Saturday," Ranma told the class the next day, "And if you don't like it, tough,"  
The students of the class laughed, always amused with Ranma's antics and his general way of speech.  
"Has something come up, sensei?" a student asked, "Have you finally decided to enter a martial arts tournament and show the whole world your true strength like you've showed us?"  
Ranma fell to the floor laughing.  
"My true strength?" Ranma smiled, wiping the tears from his eyes, "Even I dunno what my true strength is. Anyway, no, I will not be going away to enter any tournaments and neither will Shinji or Akane,"  
"We're merely taking a break," Akane commented.

new stuff 9/25

Shinji and Emiko jogged toward the gym together that afternoon. Their pace was moderate, more along the lines of running than jogging. This made Emiko noted how Shinji's speed seemed to be constantly increasing. Even though it was only by a few seconds with every passing day, the few seconds of difference is very noticeable considering she constantly kept track of Shinji's running times.  
"When do you wanna go to the planetarium?" Shinji asked.  
"Um, I'm not too sure," she said hesitantly, "W-when would you like to go?"  
"Why don't you choose?" he asked, "It doesn't really matter when we go. The only time that I'm busy is early morning because I need to teach class. Other than that, we can go at any time,"  
"How about at night?" she asked.  
"Sure," he shrugged, "What day? Tomorrow? Friday? When?" "How about Friday night?" Emiko suggested, remembering reading that Fridays and Saturdays were usually the best days to go out. Sure, dates usually took place on those nights, but wouldn't this be considered a bit of a date?  
Shinji shrugged, "Friday night? That's fine with me but what about Friday dinner with everyone,"  
"How about we go before then?" she asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Okay, we can do that,"  
The two of them reached the gym in no time, Shinji's speed and endurance rivaling that of track athletes.

The rest of the weekdays passed by in a flash.  
Shinji's training was back to the way it used to be. Since he now started going back to the gym at noontime once again, he no longer needed to teach class for the whole day and was able to spar against Oki. To Shinji's surprise, he found himself having problems getting adjusted to Oki once again. This was because he had gotten used to fighting against the significantly more powerful Ko.  
Although it only took him a day or two to get used to fighting against Oki again, Shinji was still on the losing end, still unable to beat him. "Man, it's so hard hitting you," Shinji commented on day, sweating heavily. He couldn't believe how tiring it was to go four rounds against Oki. That was the length of their sparring sessions, theirs never extending the full four rounds. It usually lasted close to it, Shinji getting knocked down more than three times to a round which meant Oki won based on a technical knockout.  
Shinji was being helped to his feet after being knocked down for the third time in the forth round. Oki smirked, "I need to rely on dodging and not being hit. I can't take hits that well, at least not someone significantly heavier and stronger than me. Your jabs is as powerful as one of my straight punches. I don't even wanna think about how much damage something like a hook punch or a uppercut would do if that ever connected,"  
Shinji smiled, "Why do I even bother? It's hard enough hitting you with a jab let alone hitting you with a much slower punch like a hook punch. I'm surprised I can actually land a straight punch every here and there,"  
Oki gave a meek smile, "Don't think I stand there waiting to get hit by that. So far, every straight punch you landed had managed to knock me down,"  
"Really?" Shinji was surprised.  
Oki nodded, "Yeah,"  
"Wow, I never knew that," Shinji commented, "Here's a question. If you do something like Mui Thai Kickboxing, doesn't that mean you should be used to getting hit really hard? Heck, getting hit with a knee or an elbow is far more devastating and damaging than a punch, especially while your opponent is wearing gloves,"  
Oki nodded, "I understand where you're coming from. However, the tournaments I entered were only children's divisions or at least young adults division. And there're also weight divisions. I'm really skilled for my size and weight. However, outside that class, there's a noticeable difference,"  
"Oh," Shinji said with a smirked, "However, I must say, that even if you do hafta hit me more times than I need to hit you before you knock me down, it's shocking just how many times you can hit me in such a short span of time,"  
"Thanks," Oki smiled happily. Although he was able to actually knock Shinji out in the first few sparring sessions when they started, Oki found himself unable to knock Shinji out anymore, no matter how many times he struck Shinji. He could only resort to knocking him down three times in a round and win by technical knockout.  
"You seem to be having problems giving me a run for my money the past day or so," Oki commented, "You seem to be a bit slower and easier to hit than usual,"  
Shinji rubbed at his shins after her removed his gloves, "It's because of my shins. They're killing me. That training you're having me doing with kicking a wooden pole with my shins is killing me. It hurts to dash in on you because it puts a lot of stress on my legs and I feel this shooting pain going up both my legs every time I do,"  
"How is the training going anyway?" Oki asked, "I would stay and help out after class, but I've been helping out my mom a lot and hafta leave right afterwards,"  
"It's going along fine," Shinji said, "It's painful, but I think it's working fine. What I don't understand is that my shins feel more sensitive now than when I first started. Even the slightest touch hurts like hell,"  
Oki chuckled, "That's how it is initially. But after a while, it won't hurt anymore. Before long, it won't hurt at all. Once that happens, you can develop some really amazing kicks, kicks far better than the ones you're used to using,"  
Shinji smirked, "I wouldn't mind that. However, I wonder what Ranma would say,"  
"I'm sure he'll be fine with it," Oki shrugged, "Considering the fact that you seem to know highly debilitating grappling attacks, I doubt a more powerful kick would be any different,"  
"Speaking of which, how're you enjoying classes?" Shinji asked curiously, "Do you think I'm doing a good job teaching? I'm starting to like it but I get no feedback from the students so I have no idea if I'm doing all right,"  
Oki stated, "You're a really good teacher. You make learning really easy and even fun. I like how you even give scenarios as to the moves' applications, it's very useful. You shouldn't change a thing,"  
Shinji blushed as he said, "Um, thanks,"  
"What I can't help but wonder is how great a sparring match we would both have," Oki commented, "With boxing, we're both kinda out of our elements because we can't kick. However, it also changes the way we fight since we both know we don't have to worry about our opponent kicking at us,"  
"True," Shinji said, "It has crossed my mind how such a fight would be,"  
"What I would really like is to actually spar against Ranma," Oki said, "I thought I had really strong shins until I hurt myself realized just how much stronger his shin is. I'd love to see where I stand in reference to him, to see how I stack up against him,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, it's kinda useless fighting Ranma,"  
"He's that good?" Oki seemed to take Shinji's word to heart.  
Shinji nodded, "You know the saying that there's always someone out there that's stronger and more powerful than you? Ranma's basically that person,"  
Actually, Ranma was that person to be more correct, Shinji thought. Becoming God is basically as strong as you can get. There's nothing beyond that. Why? Because no matter how strong a person or entity can get, it was created by something more powerful.  
"Hey, how about we team up and try and beat Ranma?" Oki grinned.  
"Hm, that doesn't sound like a bad idea,"

Friday rolled around.  
Done with their workout, Shinji and Emiko headed home together. Shinji was eager about the plans that he and Emiko had. They were expected to go to the planetarium. Shinji had been to planetariums before, always having had a fascination for astronomy. He remembered when he first went to one when he was very young, on a elementary school trip. However, that was a long time ago and on a different world. He had never been to a planetarium on this world before and was looking to going to one.  
Emiko, on the other hand, had no idea what a planetarium was. Her initial impression was something a greenhouse, having misheard the pronunciation. When she asked Shinji was it was and was explained what it was, she became very eager to see it.  
"I'm looking forward to seeing this planetarium thing you mentioned," Emiko commented on the way home, hoping that the comment was enough of a reminder of the plans that they had tonight. Shinji smirked, "You'll probably be amazed by it,"  
"Tell me again, what's it like?" she asked, wanting to hear the explanation again.  
"There's this giant and complicated machine centered around this huge circular room. All the seats in the room circle that machine and you look up toward the dome-like ceiling," Shinji replied, "The room will go dark and the ceiling looks like a clear night sky. Even in the middle of the day, it'll look as if you'rene futside and it's night out. The planetarium is a good place to go to learn about our galaxy and the atmosphere,"  
"That sounds really interesting," Emiko smiled.  
Shinji nodded, "Even though you're in a giant room and closed off from the outside world, it even synthesizes the atmosphere and gives you the sensation that you're outside. For instance, it can simulate a thunder storm where you can feel the wind and even droplets of rain,"  
"Wow," she was even more excited.  
"However, we won't be going until around six so that leaves us around three and a half hours to kill since it's only around two-thirty," Shinji said, "It's better this way dontcha think? Instead of going shortly after the gym,"  
Emiko shrugged, "I guess. That way, we can head to Friday dinner straight from the planetarium,"  
Shinji nodded, "Right,"  
"Um, w-what would you like to before then?" Emiko asked curiously, wondering if it would be all right to ask if he wanted to go to the park or do something to pass the time.  
Shinji shrugged, "I dunno. I'll probably go to the arcade and play a few games,"  
"Arcade?" Emiko asked. "Yeah," he replied, "It's a place where you can play video games. It's like those games that you see Asuka and Lina playing at home every here and there in front of the television,"  
"Oh," she said, wondering if it was all right to go with him.  
"Wanna come?" he asked. Since Emiko had never been to an arcade figure, he figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if she wanted to come. She was probably busy though.  
"M-me? Go?" she asked nervously, wondering if Shinji was able to read her mind. If he did, she would be very embarrassed.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. You wanna go?"  
"Um, sure,"  
"I dunno if the arcade is quite to your liking," Shinji commented as he and Emiko headed toward the arcade together. They were walking toward a more remote location of MegaTokyo, an area she had never visited. Although it was light out and many people were gathered about, this part likeown was usually crowded with some shady people late in to the evening.  
The two of them were dressed rather casually, dressed that way in anticipation to heading to Friday dinner right after the planetarium which was right after the arcades.  
Emiko asked, "Why do you say that?"  
"Well," Shinji couldn't help but smirk, "It's not exactly the greatest place to hang out. A lot of people that hang out there are kinda, I guess there word to say is, shady,"  
"So why do you go?" she asked. She knew Shinji was the passive type and always avoided situations if ever possible, even if it meant avoiding going to a place altogether.  
Shinji shrugged, "I dunno,"  
He knew why. Around three years ago, when he first went by the arcade, he got threatened for being there. Although he didn't get in a fight, the shear intimidation of a big guy telling him to get loss or risk bodily harm had kept him from coming back. He had avoided going to that arcade ever since that incident. However, he is no longer the meek little boy he was back then. Besides, he really felt like playing a couple of games and didn't want to be intimidated anymore.  
Shinji and Emiko stopped at the front of the arcade. It was a corner store that had a flashy neon sign about the entrances on either sides of the store. The loud sounds of its noisy interior could be heard emanating from the store.  
Shinji's heart was racing as he stood in front of the arcade. "Something seems to be bothering you," Emiko asked. He thought for a moment, wondering if there was any need to tell her. It was rather embarrassing. After a minute, he decided it didn't hurt to tell the truth. "I have some bad memories from there and would like to forget about it 'em," Shinji began, "I was playing a fighting game and minding my own business when this guy and his friends played against me in that game. Since I'd like to consider myself pretty good at video games, I ended up beating him and all his friends in the game. However, it seemed to have gotten the guy got pissed and shut the game off on me and told me to get lost,"  
"W-what did you do?" Emiko asked, already disliking the guy and in friends.  
Shinji blushed, "What do you think? I left and never came back,"  
He never mentioned how it bothered him a lot for close to a month. However, over time, he forgot about it. Funnily enough, Asuka frequented the arcade every here and there and she once mentioned about beating up a guy there that was bugging her. When she described him, the guy fit the exact same description of the guy that scared Shinji away from the arcade. It was very mortifying and something that he wouldn't mind forgetting. From where he stood now, it would have probably been better if he at least tried to fight and earn himself some respect, even if it meant getting beaten up and losing, than to run away with his tail between his legs.  
Shinji shrugged, "Anyway, that's the past. C'mon, let's head on in,"  
"That one?" Shinji asked, pointing toward a tiny stuffed frog.  
Emiko nodded, "Yeah,"  
The two of them were standing in front of a crane game where the person playing would have a chance at controlling a crane and getting it to grab various prizes within the glass container that was the game itself.  
Shinji reached in to his pocket and pulled out a token to give the game a try. As he did so, the token slipped from his fingertips and landed on his foot, rolling under a game.  
"Damn," he muttered.  
He walked over to where the game was and got down on his hands and knees, looking under the game. Reaching his fingers underneath, he came to realize that it was beyond his grasp.  
Emiko got down on her hands and knees right by him. There was a moment of awkwardness when their gazes met. It only lasted a moment before Emiko turned her attention under the game and tried to get the token.  
Despite her smaller hands, she was unable to reach the token as well.  
Shinji got back to his feet and grabbed the game.  
With a grunt and a burst of strength, he lifted it up slightly. In doing so, Emiko was able to reach the token.  
"Got it," she said, handing it back to Shinji.  
"Thanks," he said, "All right, let's try and win you that stuffed toy,"  
"O-okay," Emiko said.  
She was surprised at the display in strength. She had no idea how heavy the game was but she believed it weighed a couple of hundreds of pounds. In a situation like that, it probably would have been better had he tilted the game on one of its bottom edges.  
Shinji went about trying to win the prize.  
Emiko joined him, watching him as he tried.  
To Emiko's and Shinji's surprise, he won on the very first try.  
"All right!" Shinji said proudly, "I got it on the first try!"  
The crane dropped the frog down the shoot where Shinji grabbed it and gave a big grin. He handed it to Emiko who looked at it curiously. After a moment, he came to realize that Emiko hadn't originally wanted the stuffed frog.  
"What, you didn't want that?" he asked, scratching his head.  
"Well, t-this is fine," she said in a meek voice, "I thought you were going to get the stuffed lion that was behind this frog,"  
"Oh, I didn't know that," he gave a sheepish smile, "I thought you meant the frog. Well, don't worry about it. I'll try and get the stuffed lion this time around,"  
Emiko smiled, "Don't worry. This is fine,"  
"Are you sure?" he asked.  
"It's fine. How about we try something else out?"

Shinji narrowed his eyes toward the group of three guys smoking by one of the arcade entrances.  
"What's wrong?" she asked, definitely noticing the sudden change in Shinji's visage. The two of them had been having fun, the two of them playing simple games such as shooting basketballs toward a hoop, trying out a simple dancing game that required stepping on the proper foot sized button, and trying to hit moles popping out of a game with a soft hand-held mallet. They seemed to have been enjoying themselves until Shinji caught sight of those people outside the store.  
"That's them," Shinji commented. Although it had been three years since he saw the guy that scared him away from the arcade, Shinji had not forgotten his face.  
"What's who? Do you know them?" she asked, a bit confused.  
"The guy leaning against the parking meter is the guy who turned the game off on me and told me to get lost around three years ago," Shinji said, "I recognize him. His hair is shorter than what I last remember and he looks a bit older but he generally looks the same as then,"  
Emiko found her blood boiling toward that guy outside. She noticed that the guy had two friends with him.  
After a moment, Shinji seemed to calm down. He then shrugged and said, "Well, it doesn't matter. That's water under the bridge. C'mon, let's go play some more games. We've got an hour to kill before we should even consider heading out and to the planetarium,"  
Shinji turned around, heading for two-player racing game, figuring it would be nice to give such a game a try. Perhaps Emiko's competitive nature would make racing one another more fun. Of course, since Shinji was a good gamer by nature, he might have to allow himself to lose. He remembered reading that all guys should allow themselves to lose to a girl when playing games. He didn't know where he read it but it seemed like sound advice.  
"Let's try this," Shinji said, gesturing toward the game. When he turned around, he found Emiko gone, "Huh?"  
He looked around, he saw Emiko standing outside the arcade entrance, yelling toward the guy leaning against the parking meter.  
"Oh no!" the color drained from his face.  
He quickly rushed outside just in time to hear her last sentence. As he got closer and up to where Emiko was, he noticed just how large the guy and his friends were. He couldn't help but wonder if he lived in a world of giants were all guys were larger than him. The only guy smaller than him was Oki, which didn't mean much because Oki was also younger than him by three years.  
"You disgust me!" she sneered at the man. The guy laughed at Emiko's comments like they meant nothing.  
He looked up at the guy and noticed no look of recognition from the man's face. The man seemed to have forgotten about Shinji from three years ago. It made him wonder why this guy and his friends still hung around the arcade even after so long. Perhaps high school or college drop outs?  
"Emiko!" Shinji felt very concerned for hers and his own safety, "W-what are you doing?"  
"W-we're sorry," he said apologetically, grabbing Emiko's arm and pulling her back so that she was away from the group of guys and closer to him instead, "W-  
we'll be going now,"  
"I don't think so," the man said, grabbing the Emiko's wrist.  
To the man's surprise, Emiko flicked her wrist and the man immediately lost his grip on her. This made him a bit confused.  
Shinji snickered.  
He immediately stopped laughing when fist struck him in the side of the head. He ended up staggering toward the side where he righted himself a short distance away from Emiko.  
He narrowed his eyes toward the man who struck him. The friend had a bit of a confused look on his face, surprised that the twerp was about to remain standing after being hit so hard from such a blind side.  
I deserved that, Shinji thought.  
He rubbed at the side of his head where it was throbbing.  
"I suggest you two leave before you and the little girl get hurt," the main guy said.  
Shinji's jaw tightened. It was a similar threat the man had said to him three years ago. "No," he said defiantly, his adrenaline beginning to pump through his body.  
"I don't think you heard me correctly," the man said.  
"No, I don't think you heard me correctly. I said no," Shinji remained defiant, his bottle anger for the man surfacing. What was funny was that the guy probably had no idea why the young man seemed to harbor some form of animosity toward him.  
The man narrowed his eyes toward Shinji. There was a long moment of awkward silence before the guy shrugged and said, "Do whatcha want then,"  
The man turned around and walked off.  
Shinji watched as the friends seemed to have a confused look on their friends before they followed after him.  
"W-why didn't you fight?" Emiko asked, confused. This was unlike Shinji, the same man who took on that skilled fighter in the record store like she had seen, "That guy hit you. You should not stand for something like that,"  
"Were you trying to provoke a fight with them?" Shinji asked, almost angry.  
She opened her mouth to say something but stopped. That was rather strange of her. She was generally non confrontational if possible, tending to avoid conflict if possible. However, she didn't know why she was so angry that she wanted to confront the guy based solely on what Shinji had said.  
"I should've hit that guy back, but I didn't. That's because I don't wanna fight. Not if one could be avoided," Shinji said, "It's not worth it,"  
"Why not?" she asked, "Don't you want to get back at the guy for what he did to you before?"  
Shinji became very silent, contemplating something very important, as if wondering how to put in to words what he wanted to say.  
"Not really," he said.  
"Why not?"  
"I dunno," Shinji shrugged, "It doesn't seem worthwhile anymore. It's not worth fighting over something petty like that,"  
Emiko shrugged, "I guess you have a point,"  
Her mentality was a bit like his, perhaps a bit more confrontational where Shinji would otherwise choose to be more passive. She could understand that it was better to avoid of fight when possible.  
Shinji couldn't help but grin, "However, I must say, it did feel really good to stand up to that guy,"  
Emiko smirked.  
"It bothered the heck outta me back then," Shinji said, "However, after what happened, I came to realize that I was letting it eat away at me for far longer than need be. In a way, I kinda got my revenge on the guy. I stood up against him where I would've otherwise backed away three years ago,"  
"You've changed," Emiko commented again.  
"All for the better I hope," he replied in similar fashion, smiling.  
Emiko giggled.

Shinji and Emiko headed toward the planetarium which was located near the outskirts of MegaTokyo. That was a brisk five mile walk from their home.  
"Um, how much do you think one of the video games weigh?" Emiko asked him from out of the blue.  
"You mean in the arcade?" he asked, "I dunno. Probably around two hundred or so pounds. Perhaps even more. I'm not too sure. Why?"  
"Oh, I was merely curious," she shrugged.  
Man, I can't believe it, Emiko thought. Shinji's that strong already? He had some trouble lifting it, but he lifted it nonetheless. Exactly how much stronger has Shinji gotten since he first started training? Did he even realize how strong he had gotten?  
No one in the gym did clean and jerks or power snatches so Shinji had no reference to which he could gauge his strength. The only person that probably did do it in there was Ippo, he had never seen him doing such exercises.  
"Um, how's your training going?" she asked, wondering how she could bring up such a question.  
Shinji smiled, "What do you think? You train right along side me. The only difference in our training is that you continue to do speed bag while I get in to the ring and spar against Oki,"  
"Well, our workouts with weights differ," she state.  
"Oh yeah. That's true," he said.  
Shinji thought for a moment. Since he had no idea if he was able to lift a good amount of weight since he had no idea how strong being considered strong doing such exercise is, he figured Emiko wouldn't no either.  
"When I started doing clean and jerks," Shinji stated, "I began doing four sets of twelve repetitions with eighty-five pounds. With every progressing set, my repetitions dropped by two because I get tired so I'm only doing six repetitions by the end of the forth set. Now, I'm doing around double weight that but I do it for six sets and not dropping in any repetitions. I guess I'm progressing well. Of course, I have no idea how to gauge my progress since no one else does it,"  
"To be able to lift a hundred and seventy pounds overhead is quite a feat of strength," Emiko commented. She knew she couldn't lift that much. She didn't know if she could lift that much with her legs. It was amazing how Shinji's upper body was stronger than her lower body.  
"I guess lifting that much is considered good," Shinji shrugged, "I can do the exact same weights and sets and repetitions with the power snatch exercise. I started off with only sixty-five pounds though so I guess I'm getting better with it since I started off weaker in that exercise,"  
Emiko smirked, "But you also did that exercise after you did the clean and jerk exercise so you're probably tired,"  
"I guess," he said, "Still, I can't tell if that's a good weight or not. One thing I did notice was that I've got really good arm strength,"  
"Oh?"  
Shinji smiled, feeling proud of himself, "Every here and there, when I'm not doing anything, I sometimes visit Sylia and the others. I stopped by Linna's gym one day a few days ago and noticed a big guy doing dumbbell curls with eighty-  
five pound dumbbells in each hand. I managed to do that as well. The guy was significantly larger than me so I'm glad I was able to do what he was doing. The only thing I don't know is if the guy had just started his workout and wasn't tired at all or the opposite and ending his workout with such weights,"  
Emiko looked down at her arms. Shinji did eight-five pounds? She had no arm strength and had trouble doing more than fifteen pounds for twelve repetitions. Talking about the weights he was able to lift made Shinji curious as to the amount of weight he could bench press. Even though it wasn't a good way of gauging strength, he knew what would be considered very strong in that department. Being able to bench press one's own weight for twelve repetitions was conus, red strong. Being able to lift double one's weight was consider very strong. Anything more than that was considered extremely strong.  
Shinji wondered if he could lift more than double his bodyweight on the bench press. He knew he couldn't lift three times that weight. It would mean he would have to be able to lift somewhere around four hundred and fifty pounds. There was no way he could bench that much weight.  
"Anyway, it doesn't really matter how much I lift," he shrugged, "I feel stronger so I guess that's what matters,"  
"That's true. If you feel stronger, than you most likely gotten stronger," he said.  
"How about you? How're you progressing?" he asked.  
"I can curl with ten pounds on each arm without to much problem," she commented, "I'm doing lunges with twenty pounds on each arm. I can also do squats with weights but I don't. Basically, I've increased by five to ten pounds for my exercises but I can do double the repetitions,"  
"Wow, that's great," Shinji said sincerely, very impressed. "T-thanks," she blushed. It meant more to her that he liked her progress than even Ippo. The two of them walked, indulging in conversation. Before long, they arrived at the planetarium, a large three-story building that was located near a park. It was rectangular in design that had a large dome located in the center of the rooftop.  
"Y'see that?" Shinji pointed toward the dome, "That's basically the ceiling of the room where we're gonna be. Since the room is basically the shape of a hemisphere, it gives you a good idea of how large the room is,"  
"Wow," Emiko said. She found herself saying that pretty often. Perhaps it was because Shinji had been showing her and teaching her new things about this world she found very impressive and generally at a loss of words in describing her surprise.  
"Cool, I didn't even know that there was a park here," he shrugged, "But then again, I never really venture this far toward the outskirts of MegaTokyo,"  
"Um, do you go to the park a lot?" she asked. She remembered reading about how parks were good places to have at a picnic. Maybe she could bring that up with him, if he was interested in having a picnic that is.  
Shinji shook his head, "Nah. I never really cared much for parks. I don't mind jogging through them though. It's got nice sceneries though. What about you? Do you go to the park a lot? There's one right by the house,"  
Emiko shook her head, "Um, not that often,"  
Scratch the option for a picnic, Emiko thought to herself. If Shinji doesn't like parks, then it would be doubtful that he would want to have a picnic there. "Um, would you like to jog to the park one day?" she asked from out of the blue, a bit nervous, "Perhaps we can jog there during our training instead of running around the block. It's a good change of scene,"  
Shinji smiled, "Y'know what, that's not a bad idea. It's located a good distance away from the gym so it'll be a good amount of distance to travel to get to the park, jog through it, and then jog back. It's probably around eight miles jogging to and from the park. If we jog a few laps around it, then we can get in our usual ten miles of jogging in no problem,"  
"So you want to start going to the park?" she asked, hopeful.  
"Sure," he said, "Since it doesn't really where we go about jogging so long as we get in our usual amount, then it shouldn't matter if we go to the park or continue to jog around the gym,"  
"T-that's great to hear," she smiled warmly, looking forward to tomorrow's roadwork.  
"Back then, I couldn'tve done this," Shinji commented, "This was when jogging anything more than a mile was too hard for me. However, it'll be easy to do this now that I can jog for upwards of ten miles before getting tired,"  
Emiko smiled, "I know that. You've come a long way over the past two months since you first started and it's starting to really show,"  
"Thanks,"

Emiko looked around in the planetarium.  
She noticed that hemispherical room was a lot larger than she thought. Actually, it looked more like an auditorium than a room. There were enough seats circling the giant machine in the middle to accompany over a thousand people.  
"What is that?" she pointed toward a cylindrical machine that looked to be angled toward the ceiling with a giant spherical object on its end, "Is that the planetarium thing you were talking about?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Everyone calls it a planetarium machine. However it's more along the lines of a complicated giant projector. I really dunno much about how one works. It uses some kinda special lamp that actually generate special heat for it projecting stars and such. I think it can generate heat that's upward of twelve thousand degrees Celsius. Basically, it doesn't actually use light to generate stars and stuff but actually creates mini-stars within the projector that generate the same heat as well as light from real stars. Of course, on a insanely smaller scale,"  
"I never knew that," Emiko said, confused. He lost her when he said projector. She figured it was some kind of magical device that 'projected' images much like how a magic-user would do such a thing.  
The looked around and noticed that all the seats were filled with people. "There's a lot of people," Emiko commented.  
"It seemed like the planetarium was a popular place to check out and is constantly busy," Shinji replied, "Since people go to a planetarium around once or twice in their lives, you've gotta wonder just how many people new to the experience is here right now for their very first time,"  
The room became dark, signaling the eventual start of the planetarium program. Because of the time they had come, they would be watching a program about the beginning of the galaxy.  
Emiko leaned back in her seat, excited about the upcoming experience.

"So, how'd you like it?" Shinji asked as he and Emiko emerged from the planetarium.  
"It was very very interesting," Emiko said, "I was amazed how it actually felt like I was outside and under the stars. It felt so real,"  
"I know," he smiled, "I like how they had wind blowing when they imitated a thunder storm and even had a drop of water fall on you as if it was drizzling,"  
"That was very impressive," she said, "That caught me off-guard. I never knew machines could simulate something like that so well. I learned a lot also," "Y'know what's strange?" Shinji smirked, "All the stuff we learned about the beginning of the universe, it's basically all a buncha bull,"  
Emiko couldn't help but giggle.  
"There is no 'Big Bang' theory from where the universe was created. There's going to be not 'Big Crunch' where the universe will collapse in on itself," Shinji chuckled, "This universe is only, what, a couple of years old. It was destroyed completely and absolutely when Ranma merged with Adam and became God. Of course, he recreated it exactly like it was before. However, in spite of this, it's still only a few years old but with puzzles placed throughout it for people to find that actually leads us to believe it's billions of years old,"  
Emiko shrugged, "Well, you could always correct the person giving the demonstration,"  
Shinji laughed, "Are you kidding? I'll be looked upon as a lunatic. Besides, there's really no way to prove this. The funny thing is that the saying that fact is truly stranger than fiction seems like a fitting saying for such an occasion. There is one thing that really makes me wonder," "What?" Emiko asked.  
"If everything can be explained scientifically," he said, "How come we can't seem to give a scientific explanation of exactly what caused the 'Big Bang'? It refers to the explosion of 'quantum egg' that contained the universe's energy and matter before there was anything to begin with. However, no one can seem to explain where that 'quantum egg' came from,"  
"Ranma put the egg there," Emiko stated.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, actually, the previous God put it there, before Ranma came along and took over his job. Heh, if you think about it, the previous God actually started the universe so that meant he was God for around twenty billion years. When Ranma took over, he undid around twenty billion years of work and remade it from scratch and simply replaced it. In you think about it, Ranma broke the universe and fixed it back up without anyone noticing it. So in a sense, we live in a refurbished universe,"  
Emiko laughed, "Now that I think about it, it's actually kind of funny. Of course, what makes me wonder is that world we went to to help out Ranma went he was in that God-version of himself. If the universe is actually a few years old, then how come that world was actually a hundred or so years after what happened?"  
"Beats me,"

"You know what I find strange?" Ranma asked, "How come women seem to never apologize for anything? Heck, Eve was the one that gave Adam the apple and she never even apologized,"  
"Ranma!" all the girls shouted at him.  
Shinji couldn't help but snicker. When the girls glared at him, he quickly composed himself. Women are scary when they're angry he concluded.  
"Anyway," Ranma shrugged it off, "Changing the subject, we're all gonna be going to 'Doll Inn' for a group trip next week, on Friday night and staying there until Saturday night. Is there anyone who can't go? I spoke to all of you before and you said that you're free to go,"  
All the girls seemed to give acknowledgment of the time of the trip and their eagerness are availability to go. Little did Ranma know that Priss had cancelled a Friday and Saturday concert so she would be under no obligation to be back to work at a particular time and ruin her fun on the trip with the involvement with work. Other than that, everyone else was free.  
"Well, now that we have things squared away, let's eat," Ranma said.  
Shinji entered Linna's gym when Monday rolled around. He went in at around eleven, shortly after teaching his morning classes but before he was expected to be at the gym at noon. "Hey, Shinji," the counter girl smiled warmly at Shinji. "Morning, Miri," Shinji said with a smile, "How're you doing?"  
"I'm fine," she replied, "And you?"  
"Fine," he said.  
"If you're looking for Linna, she'll be finished with her aerobics class in about ten minutes,"  
"Thanks," he said, gesturing toward the dumbbell racks, "Do you mind?"  
The girl shrugged, "Sure, go right ahead,"  
Although Shinji wasn't supposed to work with the weights since he wasn't a member of the gym, the girl didn't seem to mind. It was rather amusing watching him. When she first met him, Shinji came to the gym daily for a week. After that, he only came by intermittently, perhaps once every few days, all the time there to see Linna.  
Rumors had spread in the gym that Linna and Shinji were seeing each other, several fellow co-workers teasing her about that. Of course, it didn't seem to bother her and they eventually stopped mentioning that since they only did that to get a reaction out of her.  
Every time Shinji came in, he would do a quick exercise of alternate dumbbell curls. Miri found it amusing because every progressive time he did that, the intensity constantly increasing. Shinji walked over to the dumbbell rack and began looking over the weights.  
Little did he know that Shinji casually doing the curling exercise had become quite a sight to behold. No one really bothered to approach him or talk to him but gym patrons seemed to recognize him and his abilities. They usually stopped what they did to observe him or became more motivated upon seeing him lift such weights.  
Shinji scratched his head, "I never really tried maxing out before on the dumbbells. I can do a do sets of eighty-five pounds on each arm. However, I wonder how much I can do if I give it my all for one set. I guess it's best to try the heaviest amount and work my way down until I know what I can do. No need tiring myself out working my way up to that weight. It's easier to work my way down,"  
He walked over to the end of the rack, where two hundred and fifty pound dumbbells lay resting. He picked one up with one arm to test the weight. To his surprise and embarrassment, it slipped out of his hands and fell off the rack on to the floor. Luckily, it didn't hit his foot when he dropped it.  
Embarrassed, Shinji picked the weight back up with one arm and placed it back on the rack. He didn't even bother to try curling it, realizing that it was too heavy for him.  
He stepped toward the side where some lighter dumbbells were placed. He stopped by the two-hundred and ten pound dumbbells were. He picked one up in his hands. It felt lighter but wasn't all that light. He didn't need to curl it to know that it was too heavy for him.  
Placing the weight back on the rack, he proceeded over to where the hundred and eighty pound dumbbells were. Lifting one up, it felt light enough in his hands to curl. However, he had no idea if he could do it for a full set of twelve repetitions.  
Shinji, not too sure if it's too heavy proceeded to curl it. By the time he reached his third repetition for his left arm, Linna's voice caused him to almost drop them. "What are you doing?" Linna asked.  
Shinji placed the weights back on the rack. He had an embarrassed look on his face as he turned toward Linna.  
"Um, n-nothing," he said.  
Linna glanced past Shinji at the set of dumbbells behind him. She had seen him curling the dumbbells when she was approaching him but she never suspected that they would be that heavy. Shinji was too small to be able to lift that much weight.  
"How many times did you lift that?" Linn asked, gesturing toward the hundred and eighty pound dumbbells.  
"Only three with each arm before you stopped me," he said, "I don't think I can do a full set with it. It's probably too heavy,"  
"Um, have you any idea just how much you're lifting?" Linna asked, shocked. Only the largest gym patrons could lift that much weight, and with both arms, not one arm. Weights that high weren't mean for curling but for dumbbell presses or shoulder shrugs.  
Shinji scratched his head, "Not really. I think it's pretty good though because I can only bench press around the weight of a dumbbell over a month ago,"  
"The only person that ever curled more weight than you was Ranma," Linna commented.  
Shinji became interested, "Really? How much did he lift?"  
Linna gave a meek smile, "Um, he curled the rack. What I mean is he curled the entire rack where all these dumbbells rest,"  
"Whoa," Shinji said, "That's a lot,"  
"Y'think?" Linna said sarcastically.  
Shinji gave a meek smile.  
"Anyway, what brings you here today? Still interested in learning how to dance?" she smiled, "You told me that you gave it a try when you visited Sumi, but realized it just wasn't your thing when you actually got on the dance floor,"  
Shinji nodded, "Right. However, I figure I should keep on learning. Maybe I'll get the hang of it. Perhaps you can keep teaching me," Linna smiled.  
"I'd be glad to,"  
In actuality, Shinji was interested in that, but he had also been interested in gauging how strong he was while he waited. At least this time around, he had a general idea of where he stood in terms of strength. Shinji had a long way to go to reach Ranma's level of strength.

new stuff 9/26

"Argh! I can't do this!" Shinji said in a huff, a big blush on his face.  
Linna smirked, "Still too uncomfortable for you?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I'm sorry. It makes me feel very uncomfortable being so close to you,"  
Linna narrowed her eyes.  
"N-not like that!" he quickly said, "Um, it's not you. It's me. I have trouble being so close to girls,"  
Shinji blushed a deep shade of red. He couldn't believe he had just revealed such an embarrassing aspect about himself so freely. It just came out by accident.  
Linna smiled, "You think I don't know?"  
"Huh?"  
She felt happy that Shinji seemed to be revealing parts about himself that he probably revealed to very few people. Ranma knew Shinji much more than anyone else, Shinji able to confide in him with much less sense of self-consciousness than with other people. The fact that he told her of someone she knew all along made her happy. Shinji was starting to open up.  
"I know you're uncomfortable being close to girls," she smiled, "It's what makes you you. However, you're coming along fine. You're no where near as uncomfortable now as before. Just the mere fact that you're voluntarily trying to overcome this is a big step,"  
"Y-you think?" he asked. He felt like he wasn't really progressing nearly as fast with the aspect of physical contact as with everything else. He constantly made mistakes and his movements were awkward. Linna's suggestion to simply move to the flow of the music had no meaning to him. It was a form of improvisation that he could not grasp.  
"You just need practice," Linna said, "You'll get used to it. Of course, you're kind of doing it the hard way, but you're still coming along fine,"  
"The hard way?" he asked, eyes wide. He looked down toward the front of his pants and quickly covered himself with both hands.  
Linna laughed loudly, almost falling to the floor from her laughter.  
After a minutes, she said, "Not like that. Although I find it rather flattering. Anyway, what I meant by that is through use of something to loosen you up. You're much like regular guys and have this fear of dancing. Usually, alcohol helps get rid of this fear. Of course, since you don't drink, you're always going to be self-conscious when you try to dance. Alcohol, on the other hand, would removed that fear. It's not the case with everyone. Some people just dance without the need of alcohol or such to loosen up. You just happen to be not one of them. There's nothing wrong with that,"  
"I dunno," Shinji sighed, "It just feels so odd for me. No offense, but it doesn't feel like, um, real dancing,"  
Linna gave Shinji and odd look, "Real dancing?"  
"It's so much different than what I know," he commented.  
"Whoa whoa whoa," Linna's eyes widened, "What are you getting at? You already know how to dance?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, but not doing the kind of dancing you're trying to show me. The dancing you're showing me is the ones I see at clubs. The kinda dancing I know aren't done in those,"  
"What kind of dancing can you do?" she asked very curiously.  
"Ballroom dancing," he stated, "Stuff like a waltz,"  
"Y-you know how to waltz?" Linna's eyes widened. She never knew this before. Someone Shinji's age should not know how to dance like that. She had been basically showing Shinji dances usually found in dance clubs. However, it seem Shinji already knew how do something pertaining to dance halls.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, and other forms of ballroom dancing, like the tango,"  
"Where did you learn to do this form of dancing?" she asked.  
"When I was an EVA pilot," he replied, "Asuka and I had to learn how to work together in a team as if we were one and we did ballroom dancing in order to understand how to work together,"  
"I've got to see this for myself," Linna said. Shinji watched as she walked over to where the radio was. She pressed a few buttons on it. A moment later, a different form of music started emanating from the speakers. The best way of describing it was that it had a classical feel to it, the song utilizing acoustic instruments like violins and piano and flute instead of the synthesized music of techno and trance that had been playing all along.  
"Is this the kind of music you can dance to?" Linna asked, approaching Shinji.  
Shinji nodded, "Yes,"  
Oh my god, Linna thought. This guy's going to make some girl really happy.

Shinji's dancing caught the attention of every female in the entire gym. When people heard the sound of classical music coming from the aerobics section of the room, they had gone to investigate. To their surprise, they found Shinji and Linna doing a waltz. Linna, accustomed to many forms of dancing, was able to follow Shinji's lead. Shinji's lead was very easy to follow, a gentle hand pressed against one of her shoulder blades turning her in the right direction. His movements were fluid and graceful and it showed. His lead made Linna move in a more fluid and graceful manner as well. Afterall, a person good at dancing and leading made the person following, even if he or she was a bad dancer, seem like a good dancer as well. Because Linna was naturally gifted in the ways of dancing, their waltz looked incredibly beautiful.  
When their waltz ended, a round of clapping came from all the onlookers. Shinji blushed a horrible shade of red when he realized how many people had been watching. He had gotten so caught up in waltzing that he didn't even notice that he had an audience.  
"You're a great dancer," one girl commented.  
"T-thanks," Shinji replied nervously.  
Shinji was showered with compliments about how well he danced. There were even several comments made as to whom had been leading, Shinji able to conceal his lead and make it look as if it was a choreographed dance.  
After a few minutes of praising Shinji, everyone went about their business, returning to their workouts after the delightful distractions.  
"I can't believe you know how to dance like that," Linna commented, "That was rather amazing,"  
"Um, thanks," he said, still blushing, "This is the first time I did that dancing since then. I'm surprised I still remembered how to do that,"  
Linna said, "I never knew you could do that,"  
"Um, actually, not many people do," Shinji said, "I kinda forgot about it since I only did that once back then,"  
"Look, all that I've been teaching you," Linna said flatly, "Forget it. Stick with ballroom dancing. This is so much better than that garbage I was showing you,"  
"Really?" Shinji was surprised.  
"The reason why you can't pick up the kind of dancing I'm showing you is because you already know a better form of it. That's because it's clashing against what you learned. Heck, that's why you had trouble learning, because deep down inside, you believed what you were learning wasn't what you considered real dancing, which I agree. It's just basically swaying to music while pressed against one another,"  
"Then why were you teaching me that form of so-called dancing?" Shinji asked.  
"Because, you said you were going to go to dance clubs and that's the kind of dancing generally found there," she replied, "You don't fit in to going to dance clubs because you're more geared toward going to dance halls,"  
"Y-you think so?" he asked.  
Linna nodded, "Because of your age, you should be generally attending dance clubs. However, you know ballroom dancing which is geared more toward an older and more sophisticated audience, people who go to dance halls. The people who go to dance clubs, if they really enjoy dancing, they move up to ballroom dancing usually,"  
"I never knew that," he said.  
"My suggestion is that rather than you changing to dance with them, they should change to dance with you," Linna said truthfully, "Dance club dancing is usually fun because of alcohol. Dance hall dancing doesn't require it to have fun. Basically, you graduated going to dance clubs and shouldn't worry about going back. You should stick to dance halls,"  
"Um, o-okay,"

Emiko was waiting for Shinji in front of the gym as he arrived just around noontime, a bit early to be more precise. It wasn't nice to make a girl wait. A girl was allowed to make a guy wait but not the other way around, a weird double standard.  
"It seems like you're getting started on the jogging," Emiko smirked, referring to Shinji coming running to the gym.  
Shinji gave a sheepish smile, "Um, actually, I was running here from Linna's gym. I didn't want to make you wait,"  
"Oh," she felt flattered, "Um, what were you doing at Linna's gym?"  
"I was just visiting her," he smiled.  
Emiko couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.  
"So, you up to jogging to the park today?" he asked.  
She nodded, smiling, "Yes. I'd like that,"  
"All right, let's going and a do some stretching before we started heading there,"

Shinji and Emiko jogged along the lake within the park. It was just large enough that it was around two an a half miles to run around the entire lake. That meant that they would be doing around ten and a half miles worth of roadwork if they jogged to the park, around the lake, and then back to the gym. An extra half-mile of road work didn't really matter much at this level of training.  
Emiko looked over and noticed couples in boats. She also noticed several people having a picnic lunch over by a hill that over looked the lake. Shinji noticed Emiko regarding the people gathered around the park. He had the funny feeling that Emiko wouldn't mind having a picnic or going out in one of those boats. "You interested in boating out along the lake one day?" he asked, pretty sure she would say yes. He had been hanging out with her so long that he seemed to be able to know what she was thinking about more often than not.  
Emiko said, "Um, yes. I guess. I've never been boating before,"  
"Never?" he asked.  
"No,"  
"Wanna go?" he asked, "Perhaps after the gym?"  
"S-sure," she said, a bit more eager than she believed, "I'd like that,"  
"Cool," he said. He had a funny feeling that he would be doing all the rowing in the boat and it would be a good workout as well. In a way, it would basically be an extended workout of what he currently did.  
Ippo watched Shinji as the young man punched at the punching bag.  
Shinji was starting to show some true promise. His punches were getting very strong, able to cause the bag to move back a good distance with a strong punch. His speed was also very good, able to run the ten or so mile in relatively quick time. His use of the speed bag was also very good, able to hit it at the same pace and speed as the regulars whom had been training there for years. However, in spite of the very noticeable improvement, Shinji still had a long way to go. He was not fast or strong as the more powerful fighters of the gym.  
As Ippo watched Shinji punch the punching bag, he noticed something very peculiar to the way Shinji punched at the bag.  
Shinji's stance seemed to constantly alternate. Sometimes, he stood with his left foot forward in a regular stance, a stance righties usually assumed. Other times, he stood with his right foot forward in a 'southpaw' style, a stance lefties usually assumed. Ippo noticed this a while ago and figured the alternating stances would change as Shinji grew more accustomed to boxing. However, even as time passed, Shinji continued to alternate stances.  
After seeing this for a couple of weeks, Ippo started wondering if Shinji might be one of those super-rare fighters that came along once every ten or so year, an ambidextrous fighter, a fighter with a left punch every bit as powerful as a right punch.  
"Shinji," Ippo approached the young man.  
Shinji stopped what he was doing.  
"I'm a bit embarrassed to ask this, but are you a lefty or a righty?" Ippo asked, truly confused. He had the sneaking feeling that Shinji was a righty but was starting to have doubts.  
"I'm a righty," Shinji said, "Why?"  
"I dunno, it's just strange how I see you assuming different stances," Ippo commented, "I notice you constantly switching between stances of that of lefties and righties. It also seems like you don't seem to favor once stance over another,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Oh, I'm sorry. Is that bad?"  
"Um, no, I'm just curious about it," Ippo said, "It's very rare seeing something like this. Usually, people favor having their dominate foot being the one in the front. However, from the looks of things, it's as if your left and your right foot can be a dominant foot,"  
"Oh, I can explain," Shinji said.  
"I spar against Ranma all the time," Shinji said, "And because he's constantly changing between a right-foot-forward and a left-foot-forward stance, I'm constantly adjusting to counter it. Since I like fighting in close and trying to grab Ranma for an attempted throw, I usually need to assume the same stance as him so it's easier to check in closer. If he has his right foot forward, I usually assume such a stance because its easier that way to get in closer. The same goes if he has his left foot forward,"  
"Oh, I understand," Ippo said, feeling a bit stupid, "That makes sense. I should've figured that out. It never even crossed my mind. How come Ranma constantly switches stances? He doesn't choose one particular stance?"  
Shinji shook his head, "No. Ranma's just as good with his left leg and left arm as he is right leg and right arm. Therefore, it doesn't matter which stance he chooses because he's equally good with both stances,"  
"And adjust yourself to those stances he assumes?" Ippo asked.  
"Yeah," Shinji replied, "I think it's really helpful because it made my entire left side equally as strong as my right,"  
"You're ambidextrous?" Ippo's eyes widened.  
Shinji shook his head, "To an extent, yes. Why?"  
Ippo became silent for a moment. "Do me a favor," Ippo said, "Hit the punching bag as hard as you can with your right hand. After that, hit it again as hard as you can with your left hand," "What kinda punch?" Shinji asked.  
"It doesn't matter. I just wanna observe," Ippo said.  
"Okay," Shinji shrugged.  
Shinji stepped back from of the bag so that he was one step away, his right foot forward. He closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths as if meditating.  
Is he meditating, Ippo wondered. He's also too far away from actually hitting the bag. Is he going to do some kind of martial arts lunging punch? That's not what I'm looking for.  
Ippo chose to say nothing. He watched as Shinji seemingly meditated for a good two minutes, simply breathing deeply, as if he were gathering up some form of inner energy.  
Suddenly, Shinji opened his eyes and let out a martial arts shout that caught the attention of several nearby patrons.  
Shinji stepped forward with his left foot, stamping it down on the floor with deadly force. Ippo's eyes widened as he recognized the intensity of the step-in. Ranma had stepped in like that when the two of them were sparring, intent on delivering the punch that would had ultimately knocked Ippo out. However, Ippo never saw the follow-through because the bell rang at the last moment, saving him from devastating damage.  
Left foot firmly on the floor, Shinji brought his right arm around in a hook punch, the elbow bent at a perfect ninety degrees. The fist struck the punching bag with such force that the bag was sent flying sideways the left so far and upward at an angle that the bottom portion of it brushed against the punching bag located to its right. For that to happen, the bag had to be almost totally parallel to the floor.  
The gym became totally silent as the patrons watched the bag swing back and forth until it came to a rest. The few people that had seen it had their jaws wide open in shock. With the bag back at its resting position, Shinji, still full of the ki he initially gathered, assumed a left-foot-forward stance one step away from the punching bag.  
After a second or so, Shinji let out the exact same martial arts shout and stepped in with his right foot, stamping it to the floor with deadly force, bringing his left arm around in a vicious hook punch, a perfect mirror image of in technique and form as the punch he had just done before.  
The fist hit the bag with equal force, sending it flying sideways toward the right where the bottom portion of it brushed against the punching bag located to the right of it.  
When it swung back and forth on its chain for a few moments, eventually coming to a rest, Shinji turned his back toward the bag and on to Ippo, who had a very impressed look on his face.  
"How's that?" Shinji asked.  
After a minute or so, Ippo smirked, "Beautiful. Both punches were of equal strength. That's quite a display to you did,"  
"Thanks," he smiled.  
"It's too bad you needed to meditate for so long to pull out such a punch," Ippo hated to be realistic, "Otherwise, those kinds of punches would easily win you many bouts,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "I know. I'm still working on that. Just give me some time and I'll be able to do it no problem,"  
Ippo didn't doubt that one bit.

Shinji and Emiko walked toward the park together after their workout at the gym. It was only around three-thirty. Along the way, the had stopped to grab a quick bite to eat to get their usual after workout meal. Since they eat at a different time than the meal they usually ate at around six, back when Shinji was attending school, Shinji got his steamed chicken and steamed broccoli from a nearby Chinese restaurant while Emiko got herself a baked potato and a small order of salad with no dressing.  
"Man, I've been sparring for Oki for quite a while and that guy still surprises me," Shinji commented, rubbing at his check where there was a bruise. There were two bruises on his face, one under his right eye and one on his left cheek.  
"Did you make him angry?" Emiko couldn't help but giggle. Shinji looked funny with those bruises. Although on occasions, he sported bruises, this was the first time he had bruises that were very evident.  
"Today I knocked Oki down twice in one round," Shinji said, "It's the first time I managed to do that ever since I started sparring against him. When he realized I only needed one more knockdown before I would win on a technical knockout, he started to show his true strength,"  
"So you think he's been holding back all this time?" Emiko asked.  
"I didn't think so until today," Shinji said, "That guy really gave me a whooping,"  
Emiko giggled.  
"What, what's so funny?" he asked.  
"You're so much different when it comes to fighting against Oki than with others," Emiko commented, "I'm the type of person who hates to admit defeat. You're kind of like that too. However, it's a bit surprising how you can so readily admit defeat,"  
"Oki's really good," Shinji said, "It's so hard hitting him. This guy's a Bantamweight, if that, perhaps even a junior Bantamweight,"  
"You've got a point," Emiko said, "Weighing around a hundred twenty pounds or less does make a person significantly faster than someone like you, who's probably around thirty or so pounds heavier. You're probably a Welterweight or as heavy as a Junior Middleweight, somewhere around a hundred a fifty,"  
Shinji smiled, "Heh, it seems like you're starting to understand boxing. You used to have problems understanding weight classes and which ones were which,"  
"I only know Bantamweight is somewhere around a hundred and twenty pounds, Welterweight is somewhere around a hundred and fifty pounds," Emiko said, "And Heavyweight is around two hundred pounds and up. Oh yeah, and that Strawweight is somewhere around a hundred and five pounds,"  
Shinji nodded, "That's right. I'm around a Welterweight. Oki is around a Bantamweight. And Ippo is a Heavyweight. Our weight classes separate us. I dunno why you know Strawweight though,"  
Emiko smiled, "That's because that's what I'd be if I was boxing,"  
Shinji chuckled, "You're right. I forgot. You're somewhere around a hundred and five pounds, huh?"  
"C'mon, you don't ask a girl her weight," Emiko gave Shinji's arm a playful punch. She held her breath as she did so. It was a form of physical contact on her part. She remembered Luna seemed to do that pretty often to Ranma and he didn't seem to mind. Besides, the relationship book said touch usually helped in getting to know a person better and was a more personal form of connection between friends.  
Shinji looked at his arm. It felt a bit weird that she touched him. She never voluntarily touched him before and this was a first. However, it wasn't as if it was something to complain about. Actually, it felt rather nice since he didn't mind physical contact. He just had trouble doing it himself.  
Shinji laughed, "You've got a point,"  
Emiko smiled, happy that he responded to the gesture without being weirded out.  
The two of them walked out to a lone booth that was located by the end of a pier that pointed out in to the lake that had several boats lining it. Shinji looked up and noticed the price it cost to take a boat out to row around the lake.  
He reached in to his pocket and pulled out his wallet, checking through it to see if he had money to rent a boat. He was happy that he did.  
"We'd like to take a boat out," Shinji said the guy manning the booth, an elderly gentleman that looked to be around sixty years old with short gray hair.  
The man happily accepted Shinji's money and provided him and Emiko each a lifejacket. He then showed them to the boat located at the end of the pier and helped the two of them in to the boat, unraveling the rope that tied it to the pier itself.  
Shinji, never having rowed a boat before, made a few mistakes rowing the oars in the proper fashion. For a few minutes, the boat went no where, circling in place.  
"You want me to help?" Emiko laughed, having a hard time suppressing her laughter.  
Shinji chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll get the hang of it,"  
After a few minutes, Shinji caught on and started rowing the boat out toward the middle of the lake.  
"You're getting the hang of it," Emiko commented.  
"Thanks,"

Shinji and Emiko sat as the boat drifted. "Man, I can't believe I dropped both oars," Shinji said, blushing in embarrassment.  
Emiko smiled. She didn't seem to mind one bit.  
"It's okay," she said, "There are people nearby. We can just wait until they get close and just call out to them for help to get the oars,"  
Shinji was leaning by the side of the beat, one hand in the water, paddling the water as if it was really going to work.  
Emiko giSumid, "I don't think that's going to work,"  
Shinji sighed, "You're right. Why do I ever try?"  
"Is it so bad?" she asked, a bit nervous, "B-being adrift? Just the two of us?"  
He was looking over the side toward the boat, his gaze still on the floating oars, "Nah. It's not bad,"  
"R-really?" she blushed.  
"Sure, if I had to be adrift with anyone, I'd rather it be you than anyone else," he said without giving it much thought.  
Emiko smiled happily.  
Emiko had this big smile on her face as she and Shinji entered the house at around five that evening.  
Although Shinji had showered earlier, before he left the gym, he had become sweaty again from all that rowing and had excused himself to go take a shower. Emiko headed for to the dojo, figuring she might as well pass her doing some katas until dinnertime.  
As she exited out in to the backyard, she stopped to glance at the wooden pole that stuck out of the ground near the dojo. She knew why it was there in the first place. She had seen Shinji constantly kicking at it with his shins.  
Shinji had told her about his training to be able to use his shins to block incoming kicks. It made her wonder how his progress was coming along.  
She walked over to the pole inspected its condition. it was.  
"Oh god," she gasped as she noticed how worn down it was. It was a similar to how the tree by the koi pond looked. Although she never seen it, she had found out about how Shinji used to punch at the tree before he started boxing, stopping only because he now had punching bags to punch instead of trees.  
Shinji's only been kicking at this with his shin for a short time and it's almost going to break, Emiko thought. He must be progressing at a phenomenal rate to be able to whittle the wood down so much.  
Figuring she should bother wasting her time wondering how long it would be before the wood finally broke, Emiko went on in to the dojo. Inside, she was surprised to find Asuka, dressed in her dogi doing katas of her own. Right by the side was Ranma, laying by the floor, resting a head on a propped up arm, seemingly sleeping.  
"Well, look who's here," Asuka smirked.  
"Care for a little sparring match?" Emiko smirked as well.  
They hadn't sparred in a while. "Sure," Asuka grinned confidently.  
Emiko narrowed her eyes. That was strange. Asuka looked much different than before, as if she was eager to fight. Even though Emiko was the better fighter and always won in the end, Asuka seemed very eager to spar.  
Something seemed strange.

Emiko and Asuka circled one another, awaiting for one another to attack. Like with all of their sparring sessions, their fists, feet, and body were padded so they wouldn't seriously hurt one another. It was different between the way females and males fought in that dojo. Shinji and Ranma fought one another with no padding, the outcome of the session usually resulting in Shinji getting hit so hard that he ended up getting knocked out or suffering a concussion. Sure, Luna healed him afterwards, but Shinji truly got hurt and usually even bled. Even though Luna could do the same for the girls, that should never have to reach that since Ranma considered them very delicate and should never bleed, especially in terms of gashes to the face.  
Ranma was now awake and sitting by the edge of the floor mat, grinning like an idiot which made Emiko a bit suspicious.  
"Even though you've been training at that boxing gym, that doesn't mean you're the only one here that's been training," Asuka said.  
Emiko wasn't all that surprised. Asuka was the tenacious type of person. Even though she ended up losing at the sparring sessions against Emiko, she was the type of person that would lick her wounds and use that lose to fuel herself to train harder and become even better and eventually her opponent.  
Asuka dashed in and lashed out with roundhouse toward the side of Emiko's body. However, it was too slow and easily read, Emiko skillfully dodging it, side-stepping the attack and countering, punching toward Asuka's chest, hitting her and sending her staggering backwards. Emiko smirked. Asuka was still susceptible to counters since her moves, when dodged, left her very wide open. Unfortunately, due to lack of upper body strength, her punches weren't all that powerful. Emiko had to hit Asuka three times to equal the amount of damage Asuka could cause with just one. Asuka sneered and dashed in, executing a side kick which was easily dodged. Emiko lashed out with a counter punch, hitting Asuka right in the chest again. However, to Emiko's shock, Asuka just gritted her teach and dashed in, before Emiko had a chance to recover and pull her arm back from the punch.  
Asuka tackled Emiko to the floor, mounting her and coming to rest sitting on top of the ninja's stomach before Emiko had a chance to realize what had happened.  
Emiko's training kicked in as she remembered Shinji having taught a technique to getting out of such a situation.  
Emiko arched her back, causing Asuka's center of gravity to shift forward where she ended up toppling forward and falling off of Emiko's stomach. Asuka yelped in surprise as she found herself having to roll off of Emiko where the two of them got back to their feet. Ranma gave a cheer as he recognized the training Emiko learned from Shinji.  
Asuka sneered, wondering what she did wrong.  
"You forgot to hook the legs behind hers," Ranma said, as if reading Asuka's thoughts.  
Damn, Asuka thought. So that's what I did wrong. If I hooked my legs behind the back of Emiko's knees, I wouldn'tve fell forward and ended up falling off that mounted position.  
Asuka's fighting like Shinji, Emiko thought. That's the way Shinji fights. She's using grappling moves. Where and when did he start learning those kind of techniques?  
She glanced over and saw Ranma still grinning like an idiot. She suddenly realized why Asuka was fighting differently. Ranma's teaching her!  
Shinji worwaalking toward the dojo as he saw Emiko emerge.  
"Yo," he greeted her.  
Emiko looked upset.  
"Is something the matter?" he asked.  
"No, not really," she lied, walking past her and in to the house.  
Shinji shrugged and entered the dojo where she saw Ranma and Asuka standing about in the middle of the floor mat.  
"Why didn't you teach me how to break out of that hold!" Asuka shouted at Ranma, "I almost had her!"  
"Keep your panties on," Ranma chuckled, "You're still learning. I can't teach you everything at once or you'll get confused,"  
"Hmph," Asuka muttered, reluctantly, "Well, whatever. Thanks for your help. It came in handy,"  
"I'll show you more tomorrow," Ranma said.  
"Fine," she said, turning around to leave.  
"Move, Baka-Shinji!" Asuka snapped at him.  
"Sorry," he said, stepping toward the side to let her by.  
After she walked by and disappeared out of the dojo, Shinji suddenly realized something, "Hey, why the heck did I move for her? I did nothing wrong,"  
Ranma laughed.  
"What happened? Emiko looked upset," Shinji commented, "Did she lose or something?"  
He figured that sooner or later, Asuka would catch up with her but not any time soon. He knew Asuka trained around the time when he and Emiko were at the gym but he didn't know exactly how hard she trained.  
Ranma shook his head, "Nah, Asuka lost like usual. She's just taking it out on everyone. What, Emiko's upset? About what?"  
"I dunno, that's what I was curious about," Shinji asked.  
Ranma shrugged, "Beats me. Perhaps it's because Asuka almost beat her today,"  
"Really?" Shinji was surprised, "I figured it'd be different. Emiko's been doing really well with training and I figured she'd have quite an edge,"  
Ranma nodded, "She's improved a good amount since I last saw her sparring against Asuka. She's faster and much more agile. However, Asuka's also been getting better as well. However, that's probably because I've been teaching her,"  
"Y-you've been teaching Asuka?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, she asked for my help," He didn't bother to mention that Asuka had come to Ranma asking for his help not in defeating Emiko but in defeating Shinji one day. Although Asuka and Shinji hadn't sparred in the longest time, Asuka knew Shinji had grown by leaps in bound and easily surpassed her. She had secretly gone to Ranma asking for help. The funny thing was that during that process, she started catching up to Emiko while on her long road to catching up to Shinji.  
"Whoa, I'm surprised she asked you for help," Shinji commented, "She never asks for assistance, not if she could help it,"  
Ranma nodded, "I agree. However, perhaps it's because I train you personally, she realizes that I know my martial arts," He grinned as he said that.  
Shinji chuckled, "You've definitely got a point there,"  
"Asuka's still a good deal away from beating Emiko," Ranma stated, "But she will eventually catch up, in a month or so, if Emiko progresses at the rate she's going,"  
"What you think Emiko's not progressing that well?" Shinji was surprised, so surprised that he had to come to her defense, "I'd hafta disagree. She's gotten a lot better than back then. She's probably a much better fighter now than she was before,"  
Ranma smirked. He figured Shinji would react with something like that. He could read Shinji like a book.  
He said, "No. I didn't mean it like that. She's progressing fine. However, Asuka's progressing at a faster rate and will eventually catch up. Keep in mind that I'm training her. Emiko's just training by herself. There's a big difference in how one progresses based on whether I'm teaching someone or someone's teaching themselves,"  
"That's true," Shinji nodded, "It took you teaching me for only a few years what'll take probably ten years to reach where I am had I learned alone,"  
Ranma smirked, "Actually, try more along the lines of twenty or so years, not ten. Because I'm teaching you and training you, you're around twenty years along in your training than had you been training on your own,"  
"R-really?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
Ranma shrugged, "More or less. Where you are now is probably where I was when I was your age, but I've been training since I was a little kid. You've only been training for a few years. The only difference is that you lack to knowledge and complete grasp of ki manipulation,"  
"I'm where you are when you were my age? Really?"  
Ranma shook his head, "Nah, perhaps where I was when I was around fifteen or so. When I went off to the mountains to train at around seventeen or eight, my skill skyrocketed. You're slowly nearing the point of where I was before I set off on my decades long training trip,"  
"Wow,"  
"Anyway, that's besides the point," Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "The point is is that Emiko will eventually be surpassed by Asuka at the rate she's going,"  
"I don't want that to happen," Shinji said.  
He blushed when he suddenly realized he said that. It shouldn't really matter who beat who. It was just sparring. However, he couldn't help but feel a sense of favoritism toward Emiko.  
Ranma grinned, "If you don't want that to happen, then how about you train Emiko yourself?"  
"M-me? Train her?" Shinji's eyes became wide.  
"Sure," Ranma nodded, "I'm training Asuka. Would it be so strange for you to train Emiko?"  
"But Emiko's better than me," Shinji stated.  
"Since when?" Ranma asked, "Since when you sparred well before she left back for her world, yes. However, times change and you've grown quite a bit. She was better than you and Asuka combined when she left. However, you two grew and eventually started closing the gap between you guys and her when she was gone. Now, since you've started this intense training, you've surpassed Emiko and Asuka combined,"  
"I-I have?" Shinji was shocked.  
Ranma chuckled, "Where you are now, if you continue to train as you do, you'll reach Akane's level within a year,"  
"Me? Be as good as Akane! No way!" Shinji could not believe that. Akane was second only to Ranma and Ryoga.  
Ranma shrugged, "It don't bother me if you believe it or not. It'll just happen given your current rate of growth. The point is is that you're significantly better than Emiko, even if you or she refuse to acknowledge it. I don't need to see you two spar to know who's gonna win. Anyway, considering your level now, you can teach Emiko some really good techniques. Sure, she's learning from you when you're teaching class, but she has a natural knack for learning martial arts and can learn techniques at a much faster rate. I noticed it when she used a move you showed her in the middle of the sparring session against Asuka. You only taught her once and she already used it perfectly and effectively,"  
"What move was that?"  
"How to avoid from getting mounted," Ranma said, "I saw her arch her back the moment her back touched the floor and it sent Asuka falling off. It really surprised me that she managed to use that technique effectively after only being shown once,"  
"Wow," Shinji said.  
"Anyway, if you want, teach her," Ranma grinned, "Otherwise, at the rate of which Asuka grows, she'll eventually surpass Emiko and it's probably going to be very hard on her when she does,"  
Shinji's lips became a thin line as the contemplated this.  
"So you really think I should teach her?"  
Ranma nodded, "Sure, why not? However, I'll be glad to teach her. However, she needs to ask me first. Whether or not she does do that is entirely up to her,"  
"No, it's all right. I'll teach her," Shinji said, "Man, that seems kinda weird. Emiko used to beat me senseless back then and now I'm better than her?"  
Ranma chuckled, "You can always spar her to confirm what I say. However, you should just take my word for it. Emiko's a great fighter, I'll give her that. But she fights with a dagger. When she doesn't fight with one, it's an entirely different ballgame,"  
"But she could beat me easily back then, without use of a dagger," Shinji stated.  
"So, you couldn't take damage like you could now," Ranma grinned, "You sparred her when I wasn't around. You spar against me and I hit a tab bit on the hard since when compared to her. She's going to hafta hit you fifty times to everyone one or your hits, provided you can actually bring yourself to hit a girl. Anyway, the point is is that she can benefit a lot from your training,"  
"I'll take that in to consideration," Shinji said, "I'll ask her if she wants me to train her,"  
"Cool," Ranma looked at his watch, "Man, it's close to dinner time. We should head on in to the house,"  
"Okay," Shinji said.  
The two of them headed for the house.  
Little did Shinji know that Ranma had purposely begun training Asuka just so there was a threat that she would defeat Emiko one day. All so it would prompt Shinji to begin training Emiko as well and on his own and spend more time with her.  
Man, I'm so manipulative, Ranma thought with a grin. If manipulating Shinji in to teaching Emiko one-on-one does not make him realize that he and Emiko would be good together, I dunno what the heck's up. Heh, I'm so evil.

Emiko was watching Shinji and Ranma fighting one another. Actually, it was more along the lines of Ranma thoroughly pummeling Shinji to a bloody pulp as Shinji continued to try hit him once.  
Emiko winced as she saw Shinji taking devastating hit after devastating hit to the face. She felt the need to stop the fight as she could see Shinji's face become swollen from the punches and bleeding from his mouth.  
"Don't worry, Emi-chan, a few cuts and scraps don't matter," Ranma stated, as if reading Emiko's mind, "We've got Luna around to heal him,"  
"Yeah, but it still hurts," Shinji rubbed at his face, "At least until I get healed,"  
Emiko shouted toward Ranma, "Stop calling me that! My name is Emiko!"  
"What's wrong with Emi-chan?" Shinji commented, "It sounds kinda cute,"  
Emiko blushed, "R-really?"  
Ranma punched Shinji right in the face, sending the young man flying backwards where he crashed in to the dojo wall and fell to the floor.  
"Shinji!" she called out, concern in his voice.  
"He's fine," Ranma said, "He'll get back up. He always gets back up,"  
Emiko became silent.  
"Look, it looks like Shinji's actually unconscious but he's really conscious," Ranma grinned, "He's just laying there motionless and trying to trick me in to thinking that I actually hit him too hard so I'll walk there to check on him. That way, he'd try a sneak attack and hit me while I'm checking on him,"  
Ranma laughed when Shinji remained still.  
"All right, to make sure he's unconscious, I'm going to throw some rocks at him," Ranma grinned, "If he doesn't move after I hit him, then I guess he's unconscious,"  
"I'm conscious! I'm conscious!" Shinji quickly got up, holding his hand in front of himself, fearing getting hit with a rock. The rocks that Ranma actually threw at him when he first tried that trick hurt like hell.  
Ranma laughed.  
"Let's call it quits," Ranma suggested, looking at his watch, "It's almost ten-thirty and generally around the time we end our sessions,"  
"Okay," Shinji didn't have any problem accepting that suggestion.  
"I'm gonna go take a shower now," Ranma said, "See you two later,"  
He left the dojo, leaving Emiko and Shinji alone.  
Emiko walked over to where Shinji sat, his back resting against the wall.  
"You okay?" she asked.  
Shinji checked himself and found that he was only bleeding for a small cut by his forehead and that he had a blood lip. He had a few tender spots around his face that would become bruises if they were left alone.  
"I'm fine," he replied.  
"How come you continue to spar against him?" Emiko asked, "Ranma's significantly better than you and basically beats you really badly every time,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Because, I slowly see myself getting better and better every time I spar against him. I can't seem to touch him, but I can as time progresses, I can start telling what kind of attacks he's going to use. The only problem is that he moves to fast for my to physically dodge it even if I can see it coming. However, I seem to be able to anticipate which move is coming even if it does hit me. Not too long ago, I remember finding myself flying through the air suddenly and not even realizing I had been struck. At least this time around, I can see the incoming attack that hits me,"  
"Still," Emiko said.  
Shinji shrugged, "I dunno. I guess it's a weird thing to understand,"  
"If you say so,"  
"Um, you seemed upset a bit earlier this evening," Shinji said, figuring now would be a good time to ask about training her.  
"Well, kinda," Emiko sat down next to him.  
"Did it have something to do with your sparring Asuka?" Shinji asked, "I remember you mentioned that it bothered you how Asuka can sometimes give you a hard time beating her. Is she still giving you a hard time?"  
"A harder time," Emiko said, finding no fault in telling him such information.  
"It's probably because Ranma's teaching her," he began.  
"I kind of figured it out," Emiko said, "She started doing stuff that reminded me much of Ranma's style,"  
"Like what?" he asked. Ranma didn't really have a style.  
"She accepted attacks to actually get in her own attacks," she stated, "It threw me off completely. It was weird, as if she was trying to allow herself to get hit so that she could hit me back,"  
"That's definitely Ranma's style," Shinji smirked, "He seems to trade hits really well. I've seen him fight Ryoga and I've seen him allow himself get hit just so he can get in the right position to land a more powerful punch or kick,"  
"It's definitely a unique style I must say. She also started doing grappling attacks," Emiko said, "It's definitely a style I'm not used to,"  
"Um, if you want, I can teach you," Shinji took the opportunity to ask, "I'm pretty good in that aspect of fighting. I found myself liking grappling attacks more than striking attacks. I can show you reversals and counters to grapples,"  
"Y-you can?" Emiko asked. She bopped herself on the top of her head, "Of course you can. You've been teaching that stuff in class all this time,"  
"Um, would you want me to teach you?" he asked.  
"Sure," she said, readily accepting the offer. It meant more time spent together. The funny thing is is that he had made it easy for her. She had been originally there to ask if he could train her.  
Shinji got back up to his feet.  
"All right, how about I start training you now?" he asked.  
"Um, how about not?" she said. "Huh? Why not?" he didn't see a reason not to start learning now.  
"Because, you're still bleeding profusely," she commented.  
"Oh yeah, I forgot," he gave a sheepish smile.  
Emiko giggled.

Shinji started teaching Emiko over the course of the week.  
He taught her in the dojo after he finished teaching his morning classes. However, he taught her privately in the far corner of the floor mat as not to disrupt the second class of the day, usually taught by Akane and sometimes Ranma.  
Emiko learned at an astounding speed. However, for the initial part of his training, he trained Emiko much in the same way he had been trained just a couple of weeks earlier, emphasizing solely on escapes from a wrist grab.  
She did all the techniques correctly on the very first try, imitating Shinji's movements when it was her turn. However, when it came to actually applying it at full speed, that was a different story. She messed up doing proper escapes when Shinji alternated between random wrist grabs. He taught her only two escapes a day, and alternated between one or the other near the end of the session, to see if she was able to understand which one to use.  
"I'm having problems recalling which way to pivot and such," she commented, "For instance, when you grab my left wrist with your right hand, I keep getting messed up and thinking you're grabbing me with your left hand and doing the motions as if you had,"  
Little did Emiko realize that it was the actually act of having Shinji's hand on one of her wrists that seemed to make her mind have problems functioning correctly.  
"Don't worry. I had trouble at first," Shinji said in a soft voice, recalling what Ranma had said, "All you need is practice. After a while, your body remembers it,"  
"I know. It's very true," she said, "However, it feels like I'm learning martial arts all over again because this style is vastly different from what I'm used to doing,"  
"You've got a point," he said, "However, knowing more ways of escaping certain situations gives ya more options to choose from and thus a better fighter,"  
Emiko smirked, "I think I know that,"  
Shinji laughed.  
"Don't worry, we've got plenty of time to learn this," he said, "It's not like I'm going anywhere. I'll be here all the time helping out,"  
"Thanks," she smiled warmly.  
"Of course,"

Before long, the rest of the week passed by and Friday rolled around and their group trip to hot spring, 'Doll Inn', came about. When Shinji and Emiko arrived back at home right after the gym at around two-  
thirty. Since they were expected back at the house to get a quick meal with everyone before they all head out. "Welcome back," Akane greeted them, "How'd your workouts go?"  
"Fine," the two of them said.  
They entered the livingroom where they saw Misato, Ritsuko, Lisa, Nene, Sylia, and Linna. This was the first time in a long long time since almost everyone had been at the house together. Priss wasn't there yet but was on her way. All of them had brought small bags that had a couple of pairs of clothes since they would be staying at the inn overnight.  
In the livingroom with them were Lina, Luna, Asuka, Rei, and Ranma. The livingroom was so crowded that they should all be gathered about in the backyard instead of inside the house.  
The only people that weren't there were Madigan, Carper, and Jun. However, it was understandable that theyge aen't around that often simply because they lived so far away, having moved not too long ago.  
"How come all of you girls bring changes of clothes?" Ranma asked them, gesturing toward the bags all piled around the corner of the room, "We're only staying there for one day overnight,"  
"What about you? What are you going to bring?" Nene asked, noticing that he didn't seem to have a bag of clothes for himself.  
Ranma reached in to his pocket and pulled out his toothbrush, a small tube of toothpaste, and a pair of socks.  
"I'm just bringing these," Ranma said.  
"That's it?" Sylia asked, "What about a change of clothes?"  
"I've got it. These socks are all I plan on changing. It's gross wearing dirty socks," Ranma stated.  
"And wearing dirty clothes isn't gross?" Ritsuko scratched her head. She didn't even want to wonder about Ranma wearing the same pair of boxers as the day before.  
Akane, having lived with both Shinji and Ranma, knew how guys worked and thought.  
"Um, I don't think you guys know," she said toward the group of females, "Guy's have only two kinds of clothes. Dirty and smelly. And the other is dirty but wearable,"  
The females gave Akane an odd look.  
"Clothes are clean to guys if the clothes smell clean," Akane said.  
"What?" they said.  
Ranma nodded, "Akane's right. We guys give it a thing called the 'sniff test',"  
"Sniff test?" everyone but Shinji asked. Shinji was simply smirking.  
Ranma pointed toward the pair of socks in his hand. He brought it up to his nose and sniffed it. These socks are dirty. However, they don't smell so they're clean by my standard,"  
"Oh gross!" several girls said.  
"Guys are stupid," Asuka commented, "They have this weird thing where they wear clothes and put the worn clothes in a pile. When they're done going through their dresser full of clean clothes, they just start wearing the worn clothes like they've magically cleaned themselves while piled there,"  
"Uh huh," Shinji and Ranma nodded.  
Akane said, "As when they start working they way through the dirty pile, they give it that sniff test. If it's clean by their standards, that being it not smelly, they wear it for the day. When they're done, the pile those second-worn clothes in to a second pile, the dirtier pile. If the clothes from the dirty pile smells, which mean it's unfit for guys to then wear, they put it in a separate pile, the smelly pile. They continue to cycle through their clothes until there's nothing but smelly clothes,"  
"That's so gross!" all the females said.  
"It never gets that bad though," Ranma smiled, "Akane's tolerance for the clothes runs out before mine does,"  
"No," Akane said, "It's because when you do do the laundry, you shove in all your clothes in to the washing machine. You basically shove in three loads of clothes in a one load washing machine,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Hey, all the clothes fit,"  
"Yeah, but what constitute a load is if it fits with water in there," Akane snapped, "Not fit before water is in there. There's a big difference between the two,"  
"I don't understand that anyway," Ranma said, "It's better to put in your clothes first and then the water, not the water first and then the clothes,"  
"Says you," Akane argued, "That's not how you use a washing machine,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Oh well. There's other ways of cleaning clothes,"  
"No, there isn't!" Akane narrowed her eyes, "You don't close the sink up and fill it with water and throw in a pair of clothes and let it sit there overnight. The sink is a sink, not some makeshift clothes washing area. And even if you do do that, you should at least use detergent, not dishwashing liquid,"  
"But it was close by," he said.  
"No!" Akane said, "You better not do that again. It's disgusting,"  
"Fine fine," Ranma held up his hands in defense.  
Akane said, "Well, it's not like it matters anyway. I took it upon myself to do the laundry, simply outta fear that I would on day start seeing his socks walking on its own,"  
"Exactly what kinds of 'guy' stuff does Ranma do?" Misato asked curiously. She figured she knew male tendencies before but had never heard of things like this before. Guys actually use sinks to wash their clothes? That's insanely disgusting!  
"He has this stupid system where if food lands on the floor, there's a chance it's still edible," Akane said, "It's some weird system that if food falls on the floor and it's been on there for less that two seconds, then it's still edible,"  
"What the hell kinda logic is that?" they gasped.  
Shinji snickered. That was so true. He remembered when Priss scared him on two occasions in to dropping his food when he was on his way out of the Chinese restaurant when she came to a screeching stop right in front of him. He remembered thinking that the food was inedible because it had been on the ground for too long.  
Ranma smirked, "So what? What about some of your crazy logic?"  
"Like what?" Sylia asked, wondering if there is going to be a battle of the sexes like they had on many occasions. It was usually the female versus Ranma.  
"Why kinda logic prompts you to buy stuff you don't even need," he asked, "We would spend two hundred yen for a one hundred yen item we need. You girls would spend one hundred yen for a two hundred yen item you don't need,"  
"That's for a 'just in case' situations," Linna said, guilty of having done that many times.  
"Whatever," he shrugged.  
"Look, let's not get in to a battle of the sexes," Ritsuko said, "They get us nowhere, just angry at Ranma,"  
Ranma shrugged, "I guess you've got a point. No real reason to argue anyway,"  
Everyone seemed to agree.  
"It's crowded in here," Nene commented, wanting to change the subject.  
"We should all gather outside," Shinji said, which seemed to surprise everyone since they were used to him generally saying nothing.  
Everyone agreed and headed outside in to the backyard. There, they continued to mingle as they waited for Priss to arrive.  
"Hey, Akantureou do the laundry in the house, right?" Misato smirked.  
"Yeah, why?" she asked, wondering where that question was going.  
"Does that mean you get to handle Ranma's underwear?" Misato asked.  
"You're sick," several females said.  
Misato laughed. However, the question did pose a sense of curiosity.  
"Um, do you?" several females asked.  
"Hello? I'm still here!" Ranma waved his hand, "Talk about this stuff when I'm not around. I don't like the thought of my underwear being the subject of conversation. It's disturbing,"  
"So is using the sink to wash your clothes," Sylia smirked.  
At that moment, before a full scale battle of the sexes debate broke out, Priss rounded the house where she saw everyone gathered up in the backyard.  
"Hey, guys, I'm here," Priss smiled.  
"Priss, you're finally here," Akane said.  
"Sorry I'm late," she gave a sheepish smile, "I knew we were supposed to leave at two-thirty, but I had trouble getting down here in time,"  
"It's no problem," Ranma said, "You're only a bit late. Besides, the bus that'll take us to the resort doesn't leave for another hour,"

new stuff 9/27

Ranma and the others were all gathered in a bus. Not one of those city buses but rather those long distance travel buses. They were all sitting in their own separate seats, the bus having very few people on there besides the group. They would be in that bus for the four hour trip to the resort.  
"Yeah, we've been to 'Doll Inn' before," Akane told Ranma when he had commented about somehow recognizing the name of the resort they were going to.  
"Really?" he asked, "When?"  
"It's that resort with the vengeful spirit doll," Akane said, "Remember? It was the place where my body got possessed by the spirit of that doll and I was somehow trapped in the doll in its place,"  
Ranma snapped his finger, "Oh! Now I remember!"  
"What are you guys talking about?" Luna asked. She had been sitting nearby and had overheard the conversation.  
"Nothing much," Ranma said, "Just about the resort I went to when we were younger. It seems like we've been to the resort before. It had this vengeful spirit doll that sat on this desk right by the hallway. It was said that if you show any form of disrespect in its presence, it'll be angry and seek revenge on you,"  
Luna gulped. Although a powerful woman, she still got scared at certain things. The story gave her chills.  
"At first, we thought it was just a made up store to attract customers," Ranma shrugged, "However, we found out that it was actually true because the spirit actually took over Akane's body so it could seek revenge on me,"  
"That's kind of creepy if you ask me," Luna couldn't help but feel a bit on edge, "What happened?"  
"Of course, nothing bad happened," he answered, "In the end, we somehow managed to get Akane and the doll to switch back to their proper bodies,"  
"How?" Luna asked, "How'd you do that?"  
"Hm, now that I think about it, we really dunno," Ranma said, "However, it's all in the past. As long as we don't anger the doll, then it's fine,"  
All the girls looked at one another. They would definitely keep that in deep consideration. Ranma laughed.  
"Y'know what'd be funny? If the doll remembers me from way back then and continues to want to seek revenge on me,"  
No one but Ranma seemed to find that funny.

Ranma looked at the wooden doll. It looked much the same as when he last saw it. A small doll wearing a dark blue kimono with short black hair and a red ribbon in its hair.  
It was somewhere around eight in the evening. He was with Luna and Akane, the others having gone up to the second floor where the entire floor had been rented to their group. They were to gather in one of the main rooms where they would be having some dinner, the four hour trip having made several of them hungry.  
"Hey, you remember me?" he pointed to himself.  
"What the hell are you doing?" Akane punched him in the face, "Leave that doll alone,"  
Ranma narrowed his eyes toward Akane. After a moment, he shrugged.  
"D-don't mind him," Akane said to the doll in a sheepish smile, "He's stupid,"  
Luna looked at the doll. She waved a hand in front of it and said a word neither of them could understand.  
After a moment, she said, "Wow, you're right, this is a possessed doll,"  
"W-we know," Akane said, getting scared. She didn't like having her fear of the possessed doll further confirmed that it was truly possessed.  
"I can see the spirit's presence within," Luna answered, "I'm communicating with it right now. Hm, it remembers you,"  
Ranma smiled, "Heh, I'm a memorable kinda guy,"  
"Ha ha," Akane said sarcastically.  
"It doesn't seem to hold any animosity toward you anymore though," Luna said, "It has a form of respect for you because even though you accidentally disrespected it, your actions that you did later on holds above that. It mentions something about you sacrificing your body in a fall or something. I'm not too clear on that,"  
"Oh," Ranma said, "I think you're referring to when Akane was possessed and lunged at me and knocked the both of us out of a tree. As we fell, I positioned myself so that I was on the bottom and would take the brunt of the fall so Akane would be left unhurt in the fall,"  
Luna couldn't help but smile, "How come I'm not surprised that you would do something like that. Anyway, the spirit seems to confirm that. I guess it's water under the bridge,"  
Akane sighed in relief, "That's good to hear,"  
"Well, don't worry, since I know the deal with the doll, I'll be sure not to do anything stupid," Ranma said.  
Akane smirked, "Are you sure? You've been doing a lot of stupid things recently,"  
Ranma laughed. "C'mon, let's head upstairs where everyone's waiting for us," Akane said, "There's, what, fifteen of us? We need to make sleeping arrangements and such,"  
"Well, Shinji and Emiko will have their own room since they won those tickets for a free stay here," Ranma said, "So basically, there's only thirteen of us that need to worry about arrangements,"  
"Hey, how are they getting along?" Luna asked. Since it was her and Akane and Ranma, and the three of them knew about Emiko liking Shinji, she had no problem asking such a question.  
"Oh yeah," Ranma said, "I forgot to mention. Shinji's been teaching Emiko private martial arts lessons for the past few days,"  
"I was about to ask you about that," Luna said, "Does that mean your plan worked?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah,"  
"That's bad," Akane smirked.  
"What's bad?" Luna asked.  
Ranma laughed, "We're basically meddling with Shinji's and Emiko's life and playing matchmaker,"  
"Hey, we're just nudging them along," Akane smiled.  
"We're doing basically what our parents used to do," Ranma smirked, "The funny thing is is that we basically grew up to do the same things that we hated our parents doing back then,"  
Akane snickered.  
"That's true,"

Everyone was gathered around in one of the resort inn rooms.  
"All right, there are five rooms on this second floor and we need to make sleeping arrangements," Ranma said, "Shinji and Emiko won the tickets for a free stay so they get their own room. That leaves us with four rooms to split among thirteen people,"  
"I'll sleep in Ranma's room," Misato said.  
"Ha ha," Ranma smirked, "You're sleeping in any room but the room I'm sleeping in,"  
Misato gave an innocent look, "Why? What did I do?"  
"I dunno," Ranma said, "But I don't wanna find out. You've got a perverted mind. You should act your age,"  
"Um, Misato's age is when she's most sexually active," Ritsuko stated, "So technically-"  
"There's children here," Sylia cleared her throat.  
"Don't mind us," Asuka said in disdain, "Feel free to talk more about your adult perversions,"  
"Look, let's make room arrangements," Ranma said, "I'm feeling a bit weary from being in that bus for so long and wanna take a dip in the hot spring,"  
The entire group debated over who slept where. Since the only request was that Misato and Ranma not share room, no one seemed to have problems deciding on where to say. Before long, rooms were easily divide to three people per room. However, everyone but Ranma had a room since he was basically the thirteenth person.  
"Well, it'll probably be better if you stay in Shinji's and Emiko's room," Priss said, "That way, it'll be an even three people per room instead of a room having four people,"  
Priss didn't want Shinji and Emiko to have a room alone together. She had the sneaking feeling that Emiko liked Shinji and wanted to interfere. Shinji liked Sumi and having it where he is torn between choosing Sumi or making Emiko happy was a problem that could be avoided.  
"I agree," Linna said. She had a sneaking feeling about Emiko as well, much like Priss. She also had no idea who Sumi was but she knew Shinji must have some kind of feelings for that girl since he went through the trouble to attempting to learn how to dance for when he visited her in Kyoto. That meant something.  
Ranma, totally unaware of Priss' and Linna' agenda for wanting him in that room and having an agenda of his own, shook his head, "Nah, it's their room. They won the tickets,"  
"Yeah," Akane concurred.  
"That's true," Luna said as well.  
Ranma had an idea.  
"I know. I'll just sleep on the roof. Now that that's settled, I'm off to the baths,"

Misato had a mischievous grin on her face as she drilled a hole in the wall that separated the women's side of the hot spring with the men's side. As to where she exactly got the drill or how the it was being powered, no one really knew. It was a mystery, much like where Akane gets her mallet.  
"What are you doing?" Ritsuko asked.  
"What the hell do you think I'm doing?" Misato answered, "I'm going to go peep on Ranma. Heck, Shinji's turning in to a fine young man too so I don't mind getting a peep on him too. However, I don't think Shinji's there. He said he went down to town to get some drinks for all of us. Oh well, peeping on Ranma instead of the two of them is fine by me,"  
"You wouldn't mind peeping on Shinji? You're sick," Linna said.  
All the adult females, but Priss, were gathered around the wall. The funny thing was that none seemed to be actively trying to discourage Misato from continuing her task. Asuka and a few of the younger females expressed distain toward Misato's actions but said nothing about it as well. "Whatcha guys doing?" came a voice, a male voice.  
The girls looked up and saw Ranma looking down at the from the fifteen foot high wall. When they realized what was going on and that they were all naked, they screamed in surprise, ducking down in the water.  
Ranma was alone in his section of the bath, Shinji not there because he had been asked to go to the town that was located around a half-mile from where the resort was situation to get some alcohol with Priss. Basically, Priss was going to be buying the alcohol but he was going to the one carrying them back.  
"H-how'd you get there, you pervert!" Akane sneered.  
"There's a big rock over on this side," Ranma grinned, "And I'm standing on it right now. Makes it much easier for the guys to peep on the girls to peep on the guys," Ranma whistled, "Damn, all of you girls are hot,"  
All the girls seemed to blush. When they realized that Ranma was peeping on them, they started shouting at them.  
"Pervert!" the all screamed, throwing whatever they could get their hands on. "Heh, you girls have lousy aim," Ranma taunted.  
Luna shot a fireball and hit him in the face, sending him flying backwards where he slammed in to the wall on the other side of the men's side of the hot spring. Luna smirked, "Lousy aim, huh?"  
"So, how are you and Sumi getting along?" Priss asked.  
"Fine," Shinji said, "I haven't seen her since I visited her in Kyoto though,"  
It was a really nice night out as Shinji and Priss walked down the street, on their way back to the resort. Priss was carrying one case of beer while Shinji carried for, two cases under each arm. "Isn't that heavy?" Priss asked. She had a bit of trouble carrying the one case she had in her hands.  
Shinji shrugged, "It's a bit heavy, but not too heavy. I'd carry the one you have but I my hands are full. Man, that's a lot of beer you got. That's, what, sixty cans of beer? That's a lot,"  
Priss smiled, "We're going to have some fun tonight. We've even got ourselves a karaoke machine just for the occasion. We simply hafta request it one the way in,"  
Shinji asked, "How many people plan on drinking?"  
"Everyone if possible, but some people will be against it," she said, "How about you, will you be drinking?"  
"I-I'm not old enough," he said, "Besides, I don't think alcohol is for me,"  
"Don't worry, we're responsible adults," Priss said.  
"Really? That's news to me," Shinji smirked.  
"Well, at least some of us are," Priss laughed at the joke.  
"Man, I can't wait to go take a soak in the spring," Shinji said, "That bus ride made me stiff,"  
Priss nodded, "I agree. I'd be in the spring right now with everyone else had I not pulled the shortest stick. Oh well. I guess someone's got to lose in that game and it was me,"  
They walked together in silence, not feeling one bit the need to talk. "So, what have you been doing lately?" she asked. Since she usually saw him once a week, she sometimes didn't know the details about what he did. She knew about him doing well in school, training at the gym, and several other things, but nothing too detailed about them.  
"I got my grades from my spring semester," Shinji said, "I got it through the mail the other day,"  
"How'd you do? You probably did really well," she said.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I got three 'A's, one 'A-' and a 'B+',"  
"Congratulations," Priss felt sincerely happy for him.  
"I probably would've done much better but training at the gym kinda took my time away from studying. However, I'm still happy with the grades I got. I kinda wish I got an 'A-' instead of a 'B+' but I guess it's my fault. I messed up pretty badly in the final for that class,"  
"Still," Priss said, "You're doing Engineering. That's an incredibly hard major to be doing. To get grades that high is very good. Did you talk to Sumi? How did she do? Since you told me she was your classmate, I assume you're both doing Engineering together,"  
"I talked to her last night," Shinji said.  
"On the phone?" Priss was surprised.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. How else?"  
"Go on," she smiled. She couldn't believe Shinji had made it so far as to be able to talk on the phone with a girl now. "She got an 'A' in all of her classes," Shinji answered, "She's really smart and great at taking tests. She even got a '100' on a Physics test. It was the third '100' any student in the class had ever gotten since the professor started teaching there around twenty years ago,"  
"That's amazing," Priss said, "She's pretty and she's smart. Definitely a keeper,"  
Shinji blushed.  
"Have you two started dating?" Priss asked.  
"N-no!" Shinji stammered, "W-we're not a couple,"  
"Do you like her?"  
Shinji was silent for a moment before he finally nodded, "Well, y-yeah. I'd like to get to know her,"  
"Why not ask her out on a date then?" Priss asked.  
Shinji became silent, his face still flushed. "Because I don't know how," he said softly after a while. The only male figures in his life that he could learn from didn't date. He was on his own with this.  
Priss felt a bit sympathetic and sad toward Shinji. Shinji was really a terrific young man and would most likely do great things when he grew up. However, he still lacked development. His personality made him a late bloomer. She could understand why. Shinji had had a horrible childhood and grew up with no father. And when his father walked back in to his life, it was to use him to pilot an EVA. It also didn't help him any when his father tried to kill him and he shot and killed his father in self-defense.  
"Don't worry, Shinji," Priss smiled warmly, "It's nothing to be ashamed of. All you do is just ask her out. It's not that hard,"  
"That's easy for you to say," he said, "I wish it was as easy just asking her to do something like go out and eat as it was, say, asking Emiko,"  
"Oh?"  
"Emiko and I go out and eat all the time and hang out together," Shinji said, "I wish it's as easy to get along with Sumi and talk to her as I do with Emiko. I have no problems doing stuff like going to the movies or going to the park with Emiko. With Sumi, I feel nervous at the thought of doing the same things but with her,"  
Priss smirked. Shinji had been basically dating Emiko all this time and he didn't even know it. It also confirmed her suspicion, that Emiko liked him. A girl that hung out with a guy, even though he had no romantic interest in her still usually developed feelings toward the guy anyway. The fact that Shinji liked Sumi meant that Emiko should keep her distance.  
"Why not just hang out with Sumi just like you hang out with Emiko?" Priss asked, "Are they so different?"  
"Yeah," Shinji said, "I hang out with Emiko so much she's starting to seem like my best friend. However, with Sumi, I kinda like her. I'm pretty sure of it,"  
Priss scratched her head. Shinji seemed to have gotten himself in to a situation he probably didn't even realize. It was a bit of a love triangle. Shinji liked Sumi while Emiko liked Shinji.  
"Does Sumi know you like her?"  
Shinji shrugged, "Um, I don't think so. We only talk to each other in between classes. We've bumped in to each other a few times out of school, but we don't really do much,"  
"Like what?"  
"Well, I saw her at the movies once," he said, "We sat next to each other. I also went with her and hour housemate, Meito, you remember her, right? They bumped in to me and I went with them to the amusement park,"  
"You went to the movies together? That's basically a date," Priss said.  
"We saw each other there," he said, "I never asked her out to the movies. She was supposed to meet her boyfriend there but-"  
"Sumi has a boyfriend?" Priss' eyes widened. This was a totally different ballgame. If she did, then Priss would had recommended Shinji go after someone else.  
Shinji shook his head, "No. They broke up,"  
"Oh,"  
"Anyway, it's different with Sumi. I like talking to her and all, but I feel a bit awkward," Shinji said, "I felt nervous visiting her but the fact that I knew her friends were going to be with her as well made it less nerve-racking. I wish I felt very comfortable with Sumi like I do hanging around Ranma and Emiko,"  
Priss smirked.  
"What are your recommendations?" he asked. "Well, my recommendation was to not dwell over it," she said.  
"What do you mean?" he was a bit confused.  
"If you and Sumi end up going out on a date, then so be it," she said, "Just let it happen. Don't ask her out on a date for the sake of asking her out. What you two got seems to be a good thing to begin with,"  
"Y-you really think so?"  
"Sure," Priss said.  
"I think I'll do that," Shinji said, "Whatever happens, happens,"  
Shinji and Priss entered the room where everyone was supposed to be gathered about. To their surprised, only Misato was there.  
"Welcome back," Misato had a big smile on her face.  
"Like you really care," Priss smirked, "You just want some beer,"  
"That too," Misato said. She was the first to grab a beer from the case. Everyone watched as she downed the entire can in several gulps.  
"Man, that hit the spot," she said happily, "Nothing beat an ice cold beer after a dip in the hot spring,"  
"Where are the others?" Shinji asked.  
"They're still in the baths," Misato said, opening her second can of beer, "Things were getting hectic,"  
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked, assuming that it was probably because of something Ranma was doing.  
"What do you expect? Ranma," Misato smirked, "He's peeping over toward the women's side and everyone's busy trying to hit him with whatever stuff they can throw,"  
"How come you're not still there?" Shinji asked.  
Misato opened her third can of beer.  
"Um, nevermind, I think I know why," Shinji smirked.  
Misato grinned, "Yep. I really like my beer,"  
"All right, I'm going to go join them," Priss said, leaving to head for her room where she placed her stuff.  
Shinji looked around for his bag and couldn't find it.  
Misato jerked a thumb over her shoulder toward the door, "Ranma put it in yours and Emiko's room,"  
"Thanks," he said.  
Shinji, eager for a dip in the hot spring, walked down the hall to his room so he could get to his back of toiletries. He simply wanted to fetch the shampoo and soap he had packed away.  
Opening the door, Shinji found himself looking at a stark naked Asuka. She had been in the process of changing from her bathroom and in to some casual wear for the evening.  
"Shinji!" she shouted at him, seemingly glowing red with anger.  
Shinji leaned back and looked the number in front of the door. To his horror, he realized it was one number off from what his room number was.  
"Oh oh,"

Shinji came screaming around the corner, Asuka chasing after him, throwing random objects at him.  
"You pervert!" she screamed, "How dare you walk in on me when you while I was changing!"  
"It was totally accidental!" he said, running for his life.  
As he rounded the corner, he was surprised to see a couple walking down the hallway. He had forgotten that other people used this resort as well. Due to his current speed, he would not be able to stop in time to keep himself from running in to the couple.  
Shinji dodged to the right, narrowly missing the couple.  
"Sorry about that," he said, looking back.  
When he looked forward he realized he made a bad judgment call as he saw a desk with a doll on top resting right in front of him. He had no where to go and ended up crashing in to the desk, topping it over and knocked the doll off, the doll falling to the floor where it broke, one of its arms and legs falling off.  
Shinji got up to his feet where he was hit in the face by a well thrown book on Asuka's behalf. Where she got the book, no one knows. He fell back to the floor where he landed on the doll.  
"Hmph! I hope that hurt!" Asuka sneered, turning around and walking off, satisfied that she got her revenge.  
Shinji got back up to his feet and brushed to dust off his clothes, "I guess I deserved that. It really was an accident that I walked in on her," He gave out a yelp of surprise as he noticed the doll broken in pieces by his feet. He quickly picked it up and the parts and proceeded to put them back together, placing the appendages back in their respective sockets.  
When it was done, Shinji placed the doll back on the desk.  
"Sorry about that," he said.  
Shinji looked down the hallway where he didn't see Asuka anymore. He sighed, grateful that he didn't have to feel her full wrath. A female when angered was quite a force to be reckoned with. The only thing worse than one angry female was a mob of angry females. Actually, that was untrue. If the mob of angry females had broomsticks and mundane items in their hands, only the hand of God could stop them.  
He looked over to where the doll was and noticed something odd.  
The eyes were red.  
"Hm, I thought its eyes were a different color,"

"What's with the hole?" Ranma asked.  
Ranma was right along the wall that separated the baths. He was looking through a hole around two inches in diameter toward the other side. He found himself basically seeing nothing, the girls lined up around the wall but not close to the hole where he could see him.  
The hole had been the one Misato had been drilling earlier.  
"It's a glory hole," Misato said with a smirk. Having downed several beers before coming back to the baths for a second dip and to be with her friends, she was slightly buzzed and didn't seem to care what she said.  
"A glory hole? What's that?" he asked.  
Several of the adult females snickered.  
"Just stick your penis through it and you'll find out," Misato laughed, "Let's just say you'll find it very enjoyable,"  
"Misato, enough, there's children around," Akane cautioned her. She knew it was the alcohol talking but being so crude in the company of children was uncalled for.  
"Hell no," Ranma replied from the other side, "You've probably got some knife over there and will chop it off,"  
"Your loss," Misato said, "You don't know what you're missing,"  
"What I'm missing will be manhood if I stuck it through there," Ranma said, "I like what I've got an I'll keep it, thank you," Emiko, a bit disgusted with how crude things had gotten among the group, decided she should head out of the bath, that she had been in there long enough. Since Priss was back and in the bath with everyone else, that meant Shinji was back. Maybe he was in the room. She could perhaps pass her time talking to him.  
She got dressed in a simple cotton robe supplied by the resort.  
She headed out of the women's changing area and headed down the hallway toward the stairs that lead to the second floor, when she would probably see Shinji.  
As she walked down the hallway, she couldn't help but feel an eerie feeling emanating from the hallway. She had been sitting nearby Akane on the bus and had overheard the story about the vengeful spirit doll and was a bit creeped out about it.  
She had seen the doll when she first entered the resort but had said nothing. Since she had been with everyone, she felt a bit safe. However, alone, she felt vulnerable.  
As she approached where the desk where the doll was, she realize that the doll was no longer on the deck.  
"Where'd it go?" she asked.  
She sensed something rushing toward her from above her and quickly looked up, just in time to see what it was.  
The doll came rushing down on top of her.  
She didn't even have time to shriek in surprise.

"Where's the disrespectful one?"  
Everyone looked up at Emiko as she stood by the edge of the bath. She was clad in the bathrobe she had put on when she left the bath area. One noticeable difference was that she had a red ribbon in her hair.  
"Where do you think?" Misato smirked, figuring she was referring to Ranma, "He's over on the other side,"  
"Hmph!" the spirit said, turning around and walked off.  
"What's up with her?" Asuka asked.  
"When did she start wearing that ribbon?" Ritsuko asked.

The spirit walked down the hallway on her way to the entrance to the men's side of the bath. There, she saw the object of her revenge, Shinji, as he walked down in the other direction.  
Shinji was wearing a bathrobe and was holding a small bucket that contained his shampoo and soap.  
"Hey, Emiko," Shinji gave a smile.  
The spirit suddenly found herself blushing as her heart started racing, as if the possessed body was reacting to the disrespectful one's presence.  
"H-hey," the spirit stammered.  
"Are you okay?" Shinji asked, noticing the flush on Emiko's cheeks.  
"I'm fine," she tried composing herself, wondering what made her blush like that in the first place.  
Shinji walked up to her and placed a hand by her forehead. Although Shinji was never one used to a physical contact with a girl, he was comfortable enough with Emiko that he was aware that she wouldn't slap him or such.  
"I-I'm f-fine," she stepped away nervously.  
"Um, okay," he figured Emiko knew herself better than he did, "Um, are you done with your bath? How's the water? Warm? Hot?"  
"I don't know," she replied. She hadn't been in the water. She had only possessed this body a few minutes ago.  
Shinji scratched his head, "Weren't you in the water just before?"  
"No," she replied.  
She regarded the young man for a moment and noticed how a small lock of his hair fell down over his forehead. She found herself reaching out as if to brush the lock from his eyes but caught herself.  
What was she doing? She was supposed to seek revenge on this disrespectful young man!  
Shinji noticed the ribbon, "Hey, you got a ribbon,"  
The spirit blushed. The man noticed such a small change?  
"It looks nice," he said.  
"T-thanks," the spirit found herself saying against her will. She found it weird. Why was her heart racing? Why did she have this weird blush around her cheeks?  
"Well, I'm gonna go take a bath," he said, "I'm a bit stiff from the bus trip up here. Carrying all those cases of beer from there back to the resort wasn't any help either. What are you going to do?"  
"W-what do you mean?" she stammered.  
"You going to take a bath as well?" he asked, "Or perhaps go back to our room?"  
"O-our room?" she asked. They shared a room? "Yeah," Shinji said, "Weren't you paying attention? Since we won those tickets, we get the rooms to ourselves. Although we could share it with Ranma, Ranma feels like he's imposing and will be staying in the same room as Linna, Sylia, and Ritsuko,"  
"O-oh," was all she could say.  
"Anyway, I'll talk to you later," he said, "Oh yeah, Priss set up the karaoke machine in the main room and I think everyone'll be up in about twenty minutes,"  
"A-are you going to be there?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, I'll be there too,"  
"Okay," she said.  
"See you then," he walked off, disappearing in to the men's dressing area.  
The spirit stood where she was for several minutes, wondering what was wrong with her. She had a perfect opportunity to show her wrath to the disrespectful one but hadn't. Why didn't she? And why was her heart racing and her cheeks flushed? She knew that it wasn't the owner of the body's personality trying to break through her subconscious because she was now in the doll's body. So what was going on?  
"I'll seize my opportunity after he is done with his bath,"  
The spirit when upstairs where she saw an open door to the middle room of a row of five. There was a light coming from there. Figuring that that was the main room the disrespectful one was referring to, she would wait for him there when he got back.  
Entering the room, she saw Asuka sitting there fumbling around with a small black box located just to the right of the giant television screen by the back end of the room. She looked around and noticed that there were several cases of beer in the corner, the several open cans Misato had drank left in a neat pile next to those cases.  
"What are you doing here?" Asuka said in a dry voice.  
"Does it matter?" the spirit noticed the hostility in that girl's voice. It made her wonder what that girl's problem was. Was it because that girl was jealous of her relationship between her and the disrespectful one, whatever it was? "W-what the hell am I thinking?" the spirit blushed again.  
Asuka narrowed her eyes, wondering what was up with Emiko. However, since she didn't really care, she went about fumbling with the karaoke machine. She liked singing and was looking forward to showing off her singing talent. Sure, Priss was also among the group and was a professional singer, but Asuka believed she could do as well as Priss if she had the chance.  
The spirit sat down in a traditional sitting position, most of her weight resting on her calves and feet as she sat on them.  
The spirit's heart skipped a beat as she saw Shinji, accompanied by everyone else, enter the room. The only person that wasn't with them was Ranma, he still in the bath, recovering from several large fireballs that Lina and Luna had struck him with. Ranma's peeping had gotten out of hand when he continued to constantly climb to the top of the rock and resume ostentatiously peeping even after being struck by the first fireball on Luna's behalf.  
What the heck is wrong with me, the spirit thought. What's wrong with this body I possessed?  
"Man, I'm looking forward to some beer," Misato said, "As I said earlier, nothing hits the spot like beer right after a nice soak in the baths,"  
"But you already drank," Shinji commented.  
"Yeah, you already drank five cans before you went back in," Priss said, "You plan on getting trashed before the night even starts?"  
Misato smiled, "That's the plan,"  
"Jeez," Ritsuko said, "You never seem to change,"  
"Ooh, a karaoke machine," Linna said in a gleeful voice.  
"I requested it when we came in," Priss stated, placing a hand on Shinji's shoulder, "I noticed that you can rent out a karaoke machine while Shinji and I were on our way out so I asked that they have one set up after we got in,"  
Shinji, so that's the name of the disrespectful one. It's kind of cute now that I think of it. What the hell am I thinking of?  
"You okay, Emiko?" Sylia asked, "You look a bit flushed. You're not suffering from heat stroke, are you? You got out of the baths before us,"  
"I'm fine," the spirit said.  
"I betcha I can sing just as well as you, Priss," Asuka said in a challenging voice.  
"Ooh, is that a challenge?"

Emiko opened her eyes and saw a hallway in front of her. She recognized the hallway as the one that led to the baths. It was the same hallway she had been walking down when she sensed something coming down at her from above before everything went black. However, she noticed that the hallway looked a bit differently, as if everything was larger or she was looking at it from a smaller point of view.  
Suddenly, her entire world tilted toward one side as she found herself falling off something. She tried to twist in the air but couldn't seem to move her body for some reason.  
Her world stopped moving as she hit the ground after a long fall. However, to her surprise, she felt no pain. She found herself looking at the world as if she was lying on her side.  
"What the hell is going on?" she asked herself.  
She was in for her second surprise as she found herself unable to hear her own voice. She had no voice and she couldn't seem to move her body.  
From her tilted point of view, she saw what looked like a giant version of Ranma as he walked down the hallway.  
Ranma was rubbing his face, which was partially charred, as he said, "Man, that Luna sure knows how to throw a fireball. How's she got aim that good?"  
"Ranma, I can't move," Emiko called out to him. However, because she had no voice, he didn't seem to hear her. Luckily for Emiko, Ranma was very keen of his surroundings and it seemed as if he sensed Emiko's plead for help.  
He looked down where he saw the doll resting on the floor by the desk where it had been resting. He bent down and picked it up.  
"We meet again," Ranma grinned, "How'd you fall down there?"  
"I-I can't move," Emiko tried to say.  
Ranma, unable to hear Emiko's voice, placed the doll back on the desk.  
"I dunno how you fell," Ranma commented, "But here you go. Back on your pedestal, like the good doll you are,"  
Satisfied that the doll was in its proper place, Ranma headed down the hallway.  
"I'm a doll?" Emiko said in an unheard voice.  
The spirit sat where she was.  
Shinji was sitting next to her, the entire room dark. He seemed to be enjoying himself as he and everyone else watched and cheered as Asuka and Priss were standing at the front of the room, dueling each other and singing verses of a popular song in alternating fashion.  
By now, most of the adults had a few beers in them and were feeling pretty giddy and happy.  
"This is really fun to watch," Shinji chuckled leaned over to say to Emiko.  
The spirit said nothing. She was wondering why she wasn't attacking the young man named Shinji. He was right next to her. He was totally open to any attack she wanted to use on him. However, what was disturbing was how Shinji seemed to be totally trusting of her and even courteous and different than what her impression of him was.  
It was most likely because of the atmosphere. Everyone in the room having fun and enjoying themselves were throwing off her intention to seek revenge. She had to focus on her revenge.  
"I'll be right back," Shinji said, getting up, feeling the need to get some bottle water. There was only cases of beer in that room. And since he didn't want to drink any alcohol, he should get himself some water.  
Shinji was walking down the hallway with two bottled waters in his hands. He had just come from the vending machine that was located right by the back of the first floor of the resort.  
As he did, noticed that the doll that used to be sitting on the desk was no longer there. This confused him because he saw it there before.  
"Hm, maybe it's being fixed," Shinji commented, feeling bad at having broken it.  
The spirit realized that she was thirsty as she sat there in the room. This made her realize that being in a body did have some limitations, like the ability to get thirsty and hungry. Being a spirit was better since she didn't have to worry about getting tired, hungry, or thirsty.  
She glanced toward where the karaoke was where she saw Ranma and Akane doing a duet together. She recognized Ranma as the man she had tried to seek revenge on a few decades ago. She even recognized Akane, the girl whose body she took over then. However, since they seemed to have no animosity toward her as well as she them, the spirit felt no need to do anything toward them and simply let them have their fun.  
She had her sights set on the young man named Shinji.  
The spirit yelped in surprise as she felt something cold touch the side of her face.  
She looked toward the side where she saw Shinji, smiling as he held a cold bottled water by her head.  
"For you," he smiled, "I figure you were thirsty,"  
The spirit looked at the bottle water and took it after a moment.  
"Um, t-thanks," she said.  
Was my judgment of the disrespectful one wrong, the spirit wondered. She couldn't help but feel a sense of warmth as she noticed him sitting back down next to her, his own bottled water in his hand. The young man was a very nice guy and she actually found the gesture very endearing.  
What was wrong with her?

9/28

Emiko climbed her way up the stairs. It only took a short time before she was able to move her body and her appendages. She didn't know how she figured out how to move but was simply happy to know that she could move.  
As she climbed her way up, she found herself suddenly whisked up in to the air as someone picked her up.  
"What the?" she said silently.  
A moment later, she found herself looking right at Ranma, a big smirk on his lips. She couldn't be any happy to see her.  
"How're you doing, Emi-chan?" Ranma grinned.  
Emiko's eyes widened. Ranma recognized her. But how? She was in a doll!  
"I figured it out," Ranma said as if having read her mind, "I noticed your other self acting weird. When I picked you up, I sensed something was different in the doll I was holding but dismissed it. Anyway, I put two and two together and came down to get you, figuring that you're trapped in the doll,"  
He felt a bit bad that Emiko was in this situation. He didn't know how she got in such a situation. Perhaps if he hadn't assumed something like this would only happen to him, this could have been prevented. He should have told everyone the story about what happened between him and Akane and how Akane had gotten possess by the doll so long ago.  
"Your other self was also wearing a ribbon that she wasn't wearing before," Ranma said, "It happened to be the same ribbon that I recognized Akane wearing so long ago. I know it doesn't make sense but I'll explain everything later,"  
Emiko was shocked. Was Ranma that observant? For a man that tended to do absolutely idiotic things, he was very smart. "Frankly, I'd like to get to the bottom of things," Ranma said, "Anyway, I'm the only one that seems to know since I'm the only one that can pick these things up. Luna would be able to pick it up, but I guess the slight bit of alcohol she drank is hindering her judgment,"  
Emiko felt this great sense of relief. She felt a great sense of gratitude at knowing someone like Ranma. As obnoxious as he was, he was also a person that could be counted on when need be.  
"Let's get this things solved," he said as placed Emiko on his shoulder, "Heh, you're a ninja. I think you should know how to balance,"  
Emiko nodded.  
Ranma headed back up the stairs and down the hallway. Emiko couldn't help but notice how every one of his steps equated to around twenty of her own steps. It probably would had taken her five minutes to travel the distance from where she was to the room entrance, which only took him a few seconds.  
Opening the door, Ranma and Emiko entered.  
Inside, Priss and Asuka were by the karaoke machine, seemingly in the middle of a second singing duel between the two of them. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves as they watched, none of them having noticed Ranma leaving the room until he entered.  
"Where'd you go?" Akane asked. She noticed the doll standing by Ranma's shoulder.  
Ranma jerked a thumb toward the doll, "One guess who here in there room is possessed,"  
The blood drained from her face, "No way,"  
"Yep," Ranma couldn't help but chuckle.  
"What the hell didja do?" she narrowed her eyes on him.  
Ranma held his hands up defensively, "I did nothing,"  
"Who's possessed?" she asked.  
"Emiko, where is she?" Ranma asked. He looked around and noticed that she wasn't there.  
"She and Shinji went for a walk," Akane answered.  
Ranma scratched his head.  
"Damn, that sucks,"  
Ranma, Emiko on his shoulder, ran down a dirt path located by the back of the resort. He remembered traveling that path many years ago. It led to small waterfall with a pond, and stream running down from it where it led in the direction of the resort.  
The moon was out that late evening, its light shining an eerie glow as it danced among the leaves swaying the summer breeze. Ranma's footsteps could be heard with every step on the dirt path, the sound of gravel parting under his weight.  
"I'm sure nothing'll happen to him," Ranma said, more to calm Emiko's concern than his own. Shinji could take care of himself. But then again, Ranma recalled having problems dealing with Akane when she had been possessed.  
The only other person out looking for him was Akane, she having headed toward town in the opposite direction Ranma was going.  
Ranma came to a sliding halt when he reached the opening where the tiny waterfall and pond was.  
He couldn't help but feel a sense of relief when he saw Shinji and the spirit sitting by the pond, her shoes by there side as they dipped their feet in the cool water, their backs toward them. Funnily enough, he couldn't help but feel as if he was intruding on the two of them. Although he noticed that Emiko's other self had been acting a bit odd, he did notice that she did nothing that was considered threatening. However, he had to be cautious. He still had no idea what happened. Perhaps the spirit had taken over Emiko's body to say something to Shinji.  
Ranma quickly ducked behind a bush.  
"What are you doing?" Emiko tried screaming at him, her voice still unheard.  
"Hey, she ain't doing nothing wrong," Ranma said as if he heard her, "Perhaps she possessed your body for a reason. No need to interrupt,"  
He didn't know what compelled him to hide. Perhaps he didn't want to jump to conclusions and think the spirit was out for revenge. Maybe she wanted to just tell Shinji that Ranma was a disrespectful person for having accidentally knocked her off her desk so many years ago. "It's a nice out tonight," Shinji commented.  
"Yes," the spirit said.  
Shinji couldn't help but feel nervous. He didn't really know why the two of them were out there. Emiko had been a bit weird lately. She wasn't acting herself.  
The spirit seemed to have realized what the feeling was that she kept feeling when near the young man. It was a feeling of love. It felt a lot better than a feeling of hatred and she choose to see where that feelings take her.  
She leaned over to rest her head on Shinji's shoulder.  
Shinji suddenly became tensed. What was Emiko doing? Wait, she did that before at the movie theatre when he had his arm over her because she had been cold.  
He looked over where he saw Emiko staring up at him. This made him even more self-conscious of himself than he already was. He felt like he wanted to respond to the closeness. However, Emiko was his friend and she was probably only cold. Was it wishful thinking on his part that the gesture meant something more? Why was he thinking like that in the first place? She probably wasn't even aware that she's doing that, much like she probably wasn't even aware that her playful punch made him more aware of her presence.  
She's just a friend, Shinji thought. She only sees me as a friend. Don't looking in to the gesture more than what it really is. Her resting her head on you is just that, not something that should be read as a show of affection. What am I thinking?  
As he looked at her and noticed that she did not look away.  
The sudden image of him and her kissing flashed through his mind.  
This made him angry at himself. What was wrong with him? If he did something like kiss her, she would hate him. It was most likely because of the setting. It was kind of romantic, what with the moon casting its glow and them sitting peacefully by the stream.  
Wait! Perhaps he was the only one thinking that! He shouldn't be thinking things like this, not with a close friend like Emiko! "Can I kiss you?" the spirit asked, assuming her usual confident tone of voice.  
"W-what?" Shinji was shocked.  
"Can I kiss you?" the spirit repeated. She didn't have long in this body and simply wanted to enjoy some of the benefits of being in one, like being able to touch something or someone that she could not when she was nothing but a spirit.  
Emiko pulled violently at Ranma's hair to get his attention.  
"C'mon, this is getting interesting," Ranma smirked, "I wanna see how he Emiko shouted something toward him, her voice unheard.  
Ranma sighed, "Fine. I guess I'll do you the favor and interrupt them,"  
He stepped up and out of the bushes and approached Shinji and Emiko's other self.  
"Ahem," he cleared his throat loudly.  
Shinji and the spirit quickly turned around, separating themselves. Shinji had this very embarrassed look on his face as if caught doing something wrong. The spirit simply regarded Ranma as if he was an intruder.  
Ranma smirked.

new stuff 9/29

"Ranma, what are you doing here?" Shinji asked, embarrassed and blushing beat red. Whether he was blushing from being so close to Emiko or from seemingly being caught about to kiss or something. Wait, was he about to kiss her?  
Ranma walked up to the two of them, Shinji and Emiko standing up as he approached them.  
"What are you trying to do to Shinji?" Ranma turned his attention toward the spirit.  
"N-nothing," the spirit said. Although he looked basically identical to the same man she had encountered so many years ago, he wasn't the same man. There was the presence to him that wasn't evident back then.  
"I don't appreciate you possessing Emiko's body," Ranma said.  
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked, a bit confused. He also noticed the doll that was standing on Ranma's shoulder. What was odd is that it looked like it shouldn't be able to stand on his shoulder without falling off.  
Ranma turned toward the spirit and said, "Why don't you tell him? I'd like to know for myself as well,"  
The spirit said nothing.  
When Ranma realized that the spirit wasn't going to say something, he turned toward Shinji and said, "That's not Emiko,"  
"What?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma grabbed the doll from his hand and held it forward for Shinji to take. He took it and looked at it curiously.  
"What's this for?" Shinji asked.  
"That's Emiko," Ranma smirked.  
Emiko nodded to indicate that Ranma's words were true. Her sudden movement freaked Shinji out which caused him to yelp in surprise and lo I'mis hold of her.  
Emiko didn't fall and hit the ground as Ranma's lightning fast reflexes allowed him to catch her during her fall.  
"I recommend you not drop her," Ranma smirked, handing it back to Shinji.  
He handed the doll back to him, which he reluctantly took back in to his hands. After a moment, he figured it was best to have the doll standing by his shoulder like he had seen on Ranma's shoulder.  
He placed the doll on his shoulder.  
"I-is this true?" Shinji turned toward the spirit, "You're not Emiko?"  
The spirit was unable to say anything. That was one of the other problems of possessing a body, feeling the same sensations of remorse and pain.  
"What's the meaning of this?" he asked, thoroughly confused.  
"You knocked me off my pedestal when you came running down the hallway and knocked me off of it," the spirit said, "I also found it disrespectful of how you simply put the doll back together and pretended nothing happened. I possessed this body to teach you a lesson..."  
"But I said I was sorry," Shinji replied.  
The spirit became silent again. Shinji had apologized. She remembered hearing him say that. Was that not enough?  
"It was an accident," he also added, "If I made you angry, it was purely unintentional," Ranma smirked. Perhaps Shinji could talk his way out of such a situation. If he could, then he was better than what Ranma was when he was young. He could never talk his way out of such a situation before. It usually resulted in bodily harm to him.  
"Um, it did seem unintentional," the spirit said.  
Ranma was about to say something. He had accidentally knocked over the pedestal way back then and she didn't let him off. What gives? But then again, if he said something, he might anger the spirit and she wouldn't let Shinji off. "I'm sorry," he said, "What would you like me to do to make it up to you?"  
The spirit was very surprised at hearing this. This was a very different approach from what she was used to. Different, but seemingly just as effective. Shinji did look sincerely regretful. "Fine. Kiss me," the spirit said. She would be happy if she switched back to her doll body. She was in the wrong here and wanted to make things right.  
"What?" Shinji was shocked.  
"You stay away from him!" Emiko looked like she was trying to yell something toward the spirit.  
The spirit, realizing that she had unnecessarily did what she did and wanted make things right, needed to be kissed. She was supposed to be a vengeful spirit and a kiss basically appeases her subconscious which would allow her to return to her original body.  
"H-how c-come?" Shinji became very nervous. He never kissed a girl before. Girls had kissed him before, but he had never kissed a girl before. And Emiko's lips also. Wait! Was he even considering kissing her? Oh my god, Ranma's thought, his eyes widened. A kiss is what unlocks the possession! When Akane's body was possessed, we accidentally kissed when we fell in to the body when I maneuvered my body below hers when she lunged at me and pushed the two of us out of that tree. That's how they returned to their proper bodies. I never told anyone about that before but that's probably what did it.  
"D-do I hafta?" Shinji seemed very reluctant and self-conscious. "You live his lips alone!" Emiko continued to try shouting toward the spirit.  
Ranma pushed Shinji, "Go ahead and do the deed. I'll explain later,"  
The shove caught Shinji off balance as he staggered forward and bumped in to the spirit, their lips touching. Unfortunately, Shinji's forward momentum carried him and the spirit forward where they both fell right in to the tiny stream, Emiko, whom had been on his shoulder, falling in with them.  
"Oops," Ranma smirked.  
Emiko, back in her own body, had tears running down her cheeks as she and Shinji and Ranma walked toward the resort. Ranma, dry, was carrying the doll in his hands. He had this sad look on his face, as if he had done something terribly wrong but said nothing about it nor cared to reveal it to anyone.  
"Are you okay?" Shinji asked. He had never seen Emiko cry before and it broke his heart seeing those tears. He couldn't help but wondering what was wrong with Emiko.  
"I'm fine," she lied right through her teeth, "I-I'm just glad I'm back in m-  
my body again,"  
Little did either of them know that she had lost her chance at a first kiss as a regular girl. That had been the real reason why she had gone back to her own world, to relinquish her ties with being a ninja, to choose the path of a normal girl. Of course, she retained her ninja knowledge and skills, but she was no longer a ninja by occupation and was nothing more than a normal girl. Relinquishing her ties with the ninja ways meant she was no longer obligated toward marrying Ranma. She hadn't anticipated that she would grow to like Shinji after coming back and had merely did so in case she did grow to like someone in the future.  
The kiss she had given Ranma had occurred when she was a ninja, not a normal girl. When she came back, she was a normal girl, and thus, could have a first kiss as a normal girl. The spirit stole that from her. "You did something really wrong," Ranma said silently toward the spirit within doll, "Your vengefulness just hurt someone really deeply,"  
The spirit couldn't help but feel a great sense of remorse. She had never intended it to turn out like this. Why did she have to be so vindictive? Shinji had said he was sorry. Couldn't she had let it slide? Ranma placed an arm around Emiko and Shinji, hoping he could lighten up the situation.  
"Hey, at least no one go hurt," he gave a bit of a smile. At least not physically, he thought.  
"Y-yeah," Shinji said, "I-I guess you have a point,"  
He touched a hand to his lips. His lips still tingled. Even though it wasn't actually Emiko whose lips he kissed, he couldn't help but feel that it could had been physically hers. The lips pressing against his lips had been soft and gentle and it made him wonder if Emiko's kiss would really be like that, had it been her that he had kissed. What was he thinking! The kiss had been merely to get Emiko and the spirit to exchange themselves back to their rightful bodies! He had only been doing her a favor. She would had done the same thing for him. So why was he dwelling so much over a kiss from Emiko's lips, even though it wasn't Emiko that had kissed him?  
He sighed. What was wrong with him?  
Ranma and Shinji and Emiko walked the rest of the way to the resort in silence.

"There you guys are," Akane had this worried look on her face, "What happened?"  
She had just gotten back to the resort, unable to find Shinji or Emiko in town after a frantic search. She had hoped Ranma had had better luck.  
She noticed the rather sad look on Emiko's face. Shinji had this rather embarrassed look. Ranma seemed perfectly normal with that stupidly oblivious look he usually had.  
"I'll explain," Ranma said, "I already explained what happened to them on the way here,"  
"Are you two okay?" Akane asked. She wondered if that was the real Emiko or the possessed one. After a moment of regarding her, she somehow knew deep down inside that it was her.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, we're fine,"  
"Why dontcha two head in?" Ranma told Emiko and Shinji. The two of them nodded and headed on in to the resort. "What happened? It looked like Emiko was crying," Akane asked.  
Ranma nodded, gesturing toward the doll in his hand, "Let's just say that things ended up being resolved in a non-violent way, but Emiko got hurt in the process,"

Luna looked at the doll. Having cast a spell on herself that instantly sobered her up, she had followed Akane after she had summoned her. She had been about to go to sleep since it was pretty late. She had noticed Ranma, Shinji, Emiko, and Akane gone from all the entertainment and hadn't thought much about it.  
"I'd like for you to help this spirit out," Ranma said, gesturing toward the doll as they all stood by the pedestal, Ranma having placed the doll back in its rightful place while Akane had gone upstairs to get Luna.  
"Like how?" Luna asked.  
"And incident happened between Emiko and Shinji and the spirit," Ranma said, "The spirit possessed Emiko's body before. However, they're back in their rightful bodies shortly I found them,"  
"Emiko, huh? Hm, I guess that explains why she seemed like she was acting a bit unlike herself earlier," Luna commented. She had noticed it as Emiko sat in the room by Shinji, especially when she had been there alone when Shinji went out to get some bottled water. However, she had dismissed it.  
She looked at the doll against, "What would you like me to do?"  
"I dunno," Ranma shrugged, "Is there anything you can do?"  
She nodded, "Yes. I can set her free and allow her passage to the spirit plane. Of course, then this doll will no longer possess the vengeful spirit that seems to attract customers to this resort,"  
Akane said, "Well, will anyone know that this is no longer a doll that contains a spirit?"  
Luna shrugged, "Not really. Not unless someone like myself or Ranma comes around and notices, I doubt it,"  
"I think it'd be best to release the spirit," Ranma said, "So something like this won't happen again,"  
"What happened?" Luna asked.  
"Yes, what happened?" Akane asked.  
"I'll explain later," he said, "Anyway, what do you recommend? Should we release the spirit or leave it alone?"  
Luna shrugged, "Doesn't really matter to me,"  
"I think we should leave the spirit alone," Akane suggested, "It's what gives this resort it's appeal,"  
"Hello, we've been to this resort twice and twice the vengeful spirit possess one of us," Ranma smirked, "That's two for two. We're batting a thousand here,"  
"Maybe it's you," Akane said.  
"I had nothing to do with it this time around," Ranma said, "I'm not at fault here this time. It seems Shinji accidentally knocked the doll over and she possessed Emiko to seek revenge on him,"  
"Jeez, it's like he's following your footsteps," Akane commented.  
"I don't think it's intentional," Ranma commented.  
"We've got to stop him so he doesn't turn in to you," Luna said jokingly, "God forbid there be two people with your personality running around,"  
"And just what's wrong with that?" Ranma asked, confused.  
Akane and Luna both giggled.  
"Hm, I guess there was no harm done," Ranma said, "I guess we can leave the spirit alone,"  
"So let's head back to the room?" Luna asked.  
"Sure," he said.  
The three of them headed toward the stairs to go upstairs. As they walked, Ranma chuckled and said, "Wouldn't it be funny if us leaving the spirit alone leads to her coming to visit us later on?"  
Neither of the two females were amused.

Emiko sat by the window ledge as she gazed out toward horizon.  
It was probably around two in the morning. Almost everyone had gone off to sleep not too long ago, having gone off to their respective sleeping quarters. A few of them, like Misato and Priss and Nene and Lina, had to be helped to their rooms, having consumed a bit too much alcohol.  
Ranma was sleeping soundly in the room as well. Since there was no indication that the spirit wouldn't try and take over Emiko's body again, he had taken it upon himself to watch out for her. In a situation like this, one would stay awake. However, he was trained enough to sense danger, even while deep asleep.  
"Can't sleep?" came a soft voice which startled her.  
Emiko looked over where she saw Shinji as he was in his futon. "Um, not really," she said. She had already gotten over what had happened, about her little misadventure in that doll's body.  
"Is it about what happened?" he asked.  
She shook her head, "Not really. It was definitely frightening, but since nothing bad happened, I'm not all that distraught over that,"  
"Are you sure?" he asked. He was really tired and wanted to go to sleep.  
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered.  
"All right," he said, sliding the blankets up to cover him up to his neck, "I'm going to try and get some sleep. If you have any problems, don't hesitate to wake me up and tell me,"  
"I-I'll do that," she smiled warmly.  
Shinji regarded Emiko for a moment, noticing how pretty she looked against the glow of the moonlight shining in through the window, a silhouette forming around her to give her an almost angelic look. A sudden image of his lips touching hers flashed before his eyes. He didn't know why that happened but it just did. It made him wonder how kissing her was really like. Of course, it's not like he'd ever find out. Boyfriends and girlfriends kiss each other, not friends. Right? As much as he was curious as to how it felt to kiss her, he would never jeopardize their friendship over something selfish like that. He had seen it in movies. A simple kiss leading to the breakup of a relationship. However, a simple kiss was also the start of what could be something more than just a friendship.  
Man, I'm so confused, Shinji thought. Emiko's kiss made me feel all weird much like that kiss Sumi gave me as an birthday present.  
After a moment of quiet contemplation, Shinji banished those thoughts. He shouldn't be thinking like that. He wasn't ready for something like that. Linna had mentioned to just let things happen on its own. Thinking of something like that was as if he was trying to force things to happen, to go down a certain path, whatever path that was.  
Shinji closed his eyes and waited for sleep to bestow him. Before long, he fell asleep.  
Emiko regarded Shinji's sleeping form. She touched a hand to her lips. She couldn't help but feel a sense of animosity toward the spirit, a spirit that possessed her body and stole her first kiss as a normal girl.  
However, at least it was Shinji, she thought.  
Emiko was pretty sure she liked him. The quickness of heartbeat. The sudden sensation of being happier when seeing him. The book had indicated that that meant she had some kind of fondness or attraction toward him. Damn, why did that spirit steal her first kiss?

Emiko woke up the next morning feeling rather refreshed.  
She was in her futon, which was located near in between Shinji's and Ranma's. She had no idea when she climbed in to her futon, but she figured she must've been so dead tired that she didn't care that she was sleeping between two guys.  
That was something she found odd. When she had found out that she would be sharing a room alone with Shinji, she had been constantly aware of that. However, because of the incident, it kept her mind occupied, especially after she found out that she would be sharing it with Shinji and Ranma.  
She looked over to the side where she noticed that Ranma's futon was empty. It was probably only around eight in the morning. Looking over to the other side she saw that Shinji's futon was empty as well.  
"What the?" she wondered. She knew she wasn't skilled enough to detect Ranma's presence as he came and went. However, how was it possible that Shinji had somehow managed to do the same?  
Even if she had ever slept next to Shinji before, she knew that it should had been impossible for him to sneak away. Had her skills dulled that much over the months? Or had Shinji's skill improved that much? Or could it had been a combination of both?  
Oddly enough, it didn't really bother her all that much. She was pretty sure Shinji had surpassed her. She didn't know by how much, perhaps not that much, but she was pretty sure of it.  
Shinji fighting off that guy in the record store those many weeks ago was one of the key indications. She, without her dagger, would probably not had been able to defeat him. But then again, who knows.  
Emiko got up out of her futon and stretched, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She walked over to the small backpack she brought with her that contained a change of clothes. She got changed. There was a mirror located right by the back corner of thy ouroom. She walked over to inspect herself, wondering how she looked. There was a knock on her door as she looked at herself in the mirror.  
"Um, come in," she said.  
She couldn't help but feel her morning a bit brighter as the door opened to reveal Shinji. He was clad in some casual clothes.  
"Cool, you're awake," he smiled, "G'morning,"  
"Good morning," she said, smiling.  
"I came up to get you, to see if you wanted to eat some breakfast with everyone," he said, "Luna, Ranma, and Akane, and myself are all up. Everyone else is still asleep, probably either just wanting to sleep in late or trying to sleep off the alcohol the consumed last night,"  
Emiko giggled.  
"Would ya like to come? We're all gonna go down to town to get something to eat," he said, "We haven't decided yet on what we're gonna get, but we believe we'd figure it out along the way. Ranma suggests eggs and bacon and such, but then again, he seems to have a fondness for western-style breakfast,"  
"I'd like to come," she said.  
"Cool, we'll be waiting downstairs,"  
"Okay, I'll be down shortly," she said.  
Shinji turned around to leave, but before he did, he turned back around and said something. "You look nice in that outfit,"  
Emiko came downstairs where she saw Shinji waiting there by himself.  
"Where's everyone else?" Emiko asked.  
Shinji had this confused look on his face, "I dunno. Ranma said he had a stomachache and said to go without him,"  
"What about Luna and Akane?" she asked.  
"Ranma told me they left already and would meet us for breakfast at the diner at the corner across the street from this conveniences store," Shinji said, "I think I know which diner they're talking about because I remember passing the diner with Priss on the way back after getting the alcohol for everyone,"  
Emiko asked, "Hm, it's strange that they left without us,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Oh well. We'll meet them there then,"  
"Right," she nodded.  
"You ready?" he asked.  
"Yeah,"  
Together, Emiko and Shinji left for breakfast together.  
A few minutes passed before Luna and Akane and Ranma came down the stairs.  
"Are they gone?" Akane asked.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I saw them disappear around the corner,"  
Luna smirked, "Man, Ranma, you're pretty manipulative, playing matchmaker like that,"  
"Hey, you're the one who suggested it," Ranma retorted.  
"But you're the one that came up with that idea to pretend like you had a stomachache and that Akane and I left without them,"  
Ranma grinned, "Pretty evil of me, huh?"  
"You say that like it's a good thing," Akane smirked.  
"Hey, I'll have you know that I can be a bad guy if I want to," Ranma said confidently, "I'd probably be a really good bad guy, too. For instance, when I was the God-version of myself, I was basically a bad guy,"  
"No you weren't," Luna stated, "That version of yourself just took crap from no one. He just wanted to be left alone but did vicious things when people bothered him. There's a big difference between wanting to be left alone and being evil,"  
Ranma shrugged, "I guess. Still, I think I'd be a good bad guy,"  
Akane waved a dismissive hand, "Whatever. Anyway, where do you want to go get some breakfast?"  
Ranma smirked.  
"Where else? Anywhere but the diner where Shinji and Emiko went to. Leave those two alone,"  
Emiko giggled, "You've got something on your face,"  
Shinji touched his cheek.  
"No, your other cheek," she smiled.  
He touched the other cheek where he found a small piece of hash brown stuck to it. He didn't even know why he was eating western-style food like scrambled eggs and hash browns. He should be eating healthier but he figured he could deviate from his diet every now and then.  
He and Emiko laughed.  
"I wonder where Akane and Luna are," Shinji commented, "I don't see them here,"  
Emiko shrugged, "Does it really matter? I'm sure they're in the middle of the meal,"  
"You've got a point there," Shinji said, eating his food.  
She couldn't help but feel glad that it was just her and Shinji having breakfast together. It helped her forget about the incident that occurred last night. "I like doing this," Shinji commented.  
"Doing what?"  
"Just having breakfast with you," he said bluntly, "It's fun talking to you,"  
Emiko blushed, "T-thanks. Um, it's fun talking to you, too,"  
Little did Shinji know that he seemed a bit too comfortable with Emiko that he didn't seem to worry about what he said or how his words could be misinterpreted. "Um, I was surprised you slipped away this morning," Emiko said from out of the blue.  
"Oh? Whatcha mean?" he asked.  
She gave a sheepish smile, "Well, I figured I would've at least sensed when you were getting out of your futon when you were about to leave the room,"  
"Ooh, you mean you didn't notice me slip out?" Shinji had this proud look on his face.  
Emiko shook her head, "No. That's why I was surprised when I woke up and saw you gone,"  
"I didn't even try to sneak out. I simple woke up, got out of my futon and left. Perhaps I didn't make any noise,"  
"I don't need sound to sense you," Emiko smirked, "Just your mere movements should be enough to get me to realize you were trying to leave the room, not the sounds you were making,"  
"Oh," he said, "Well, I dunno. I didn't do nothing special. I just went about waking up like I usually did,"  
"Maybe you're getting a lot more skillful than I thought," she commented.  
Shinji blushed, "T-thanks,"  
"That kinda makes me curious as to how much more skillful you've gotten since we've last sparred," she said, "It's been several months. We sparred before I had left to go back to my world with Luna and Lina. I'm curious as to how much you had improved,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, remembering what Ranma said, about how he shouldn't fight against Emiko since he was significantly better.  
"Um, how about we not?" he suggested nervously.  
"Why not?" she asked.  
"Well, um, er," Shinji could find no choice words to say.  
"C'mon, it'll be fun, like back then," she said.  
She was pretty sure he was better than her. However, she felt not one bit worried about how she would feel losing to him. It would be a good way of gauging herself.  
"Um, I-I really don't wanna," he said. Besides, he could never bring himself to hit Emiko. Most definitely could not. That only left him with grappling against her and he dared not think of what would happen to him if he grabbed at her wrong and ended up grabbing a part of her that he should not.  
Emiko said, "Why not?"  
"I just prefer not, too," he said.  
"Fine," she pouted.  
Shinji smirked. He had never seen her pout before but she looked very cute doing so. There was a very girlish charm to it he found endearing. It was as if he was seeing a side to Emiko he had never seen before.  
"What, you really want to spar against me?" he asked, not even knowing why he was asking that. The subject had been closed and he could had gone off to talk about other things. However, perhaps seeing her a bit sad about not being able to spar against him is what made him want to spar her, to make her happy.  
Emiko nodded, "Yes. I'd like that,"  
Shinji scratched his head, as if in deep thought as to whether he should really go through with it and spar against her. He'd most likely win and she'd resent him. However, he had great confidence in his abilities to make it seem like he was going all-out against her.  
"Okay, fine," he sighed, feeling like he was creating trouble for himself.  
Emiko smiled happily.  
"How about we spar after I become pro?" he hoped to prolong it.  
"Deal,"

The trip back home was fine. The bus had left from the town located a half-  
mile away from the resort at around four in the afternoon. Before they boarded the bus, everyone had enjoyed a nice soak in the baths again before they head to the town. After that, they had gone out and gotten lunch together, taking another soak in the baths before four rolled around. Akane and Luna had lied their way out of why they hadn't bumped in to Shinji and Emiko, telling them that they had been at a different diner. Ranma had said he felt mysteriously better shortly after Shinji and Emiko had left.  
The bus arrived in town a little bit after eight in the evening. After they were dropped off, everyone went off and got dinner together, carrying with them their bags. They ate their meal in relative peace, Ranma only getting punched a few times for saying something stupid.  
After their meal, they said their goodbyes before they went their separate ways. Shinji and the others walked home, indulging in light conversation and about how much they enjoyed the resort and how they should do it again another time.  
Since it was around ten at night when everyone got back in to the house, Ranma had opted to skip on tonight's sparring session, telling Shinji that they would spar twice tomorrow to make up for it, on right after the gym and one right after dinner. Since tomorrow would be Sunday and Shinji and Emiko usually skipped that day training, they were to go since they took Saturday off.  
Shinji looked around the dojo, wondering where Akane and Ranma was that Sunday. They had mentioned something about it being a hot day out and wanting to go to the beach. That probably made sense since Luna and Rei and Asuka weren't around either. Emiko had been the only one that stayed behind. Unfortunately for Shinji, he had been given the responsibility of teaching classes for the rest of the morning until they got back, which would be somewhere around noon, just in time for him and Emiko to head to the gym.  
It was only around nine in the morning so they wouldn't be around for another three hours. It didn't really bother him. Oki was around and he could pass his time chatting with him or training Emiko privately in the meanwhile. Emiko was currently learning in class with Oki. As Shinji went about teaching class, satisfied with how much better he had become at teaching since when he first start, he noticed two individuals enter the he didn't recognize. Over the course of the weeks he had been teaching, he had grown to recognize all the students as well as their names. They must be potential new students.  
Shinji approached them and regarded them for a moment. They were both taller than him and had a build that indicated a good combination of power and speed could be summoned from such well-defined bodies. They were probably twice Shinji's age but they looked to only be around ten years his elder. One had short brown hair and the other had long brown hair. They were wearing casual clothes and each had duffle bags with them.  
The two young men had a presence to them that indicated they were very skilled martial artists. They looked alike and Shinji assumed they were brothers. "Good morning," Shinji greeted them, hoping there would be no incident.  
The two men bowed politely, "Good morning,"  
"I'm Shinji, um, the sensei at the current moment," he said, feeling a bit proud of the title, "Is there something I can help you with?"  
"I'm Katsuhito," the short haired man said. He gestured toward the man with the long hair standing next to him, "This is my brother Otomo,"  
"It's nice to meetcha," Shinji smiled.  
"We came on behalf of the 'Hyusa School of Martial Arts'," Katsuhito said, "We are two students from that school. It is located up north in Hokkaido and we have come to challenge this school,"  
Shinji's eyes widened, "W-what? C-challenge?"  
"We've heard that this is a great school," he said, "But we have come without our master's, Tsuki Hyusa, consent. We would like to challenge you to see if your school is as good as it is,"  
"Um, er," Shinji was shocked.  
"Our master used to run a dojo nearby here," the man said, "But because this dojo had been put up, it took away from our master's business and he relocated up to Hokkaido. We came to see if this school is better than our master's school,"  
Shinji was silent. Was this possible? For schools to challenge one another? He never knew that something like this could occur.  
"We are the two top students from that school," the man continued, "Would you please accept our challenge?"  
"Um, d-do I hafta?" Shinji gave a sheepish smile.  
"If you defeat us, we won't harbor any resentment toward this school or its style," the man said, "We wish to challenge you for peace of mind,"  
"Yes, please allow us the honor to challenge this school and see if it's as great as we've heard it to be," the man named Otomo said.  
Shinji regarded the two individuals for a moment. He couldn't help but notice the great level of respect they seemed to have toward him. They were very well-  
mannered and well-disciplined, most likely a result of their training. He couldn't help but admire their master, Tsuki Hyusa, and his teaching methods. It was nice to see that other senseis had taught discipline and respect much like Ranma did.  
"Um, I'm only the acting sensei," Shinji said.  
"Oh?" the both asked.  
"The main sensei, Ranma, is not here at the moment," Shinji answered, "I'm much like you, one of his main students,"  
They both smiled and laughed.  
"Well, I guess it's a challenge among the students of both schools then," Otomo said, "Our sensei doesn't know about this so there's no need for your sensei to know,"  
Shinji couldn't help but laugh.  
"So, will you do us the honor and accept our challenge?" Katsuhito asked. To Shinji's surprise, he and Otomo got down on their knees and kowtowed in front of him, their hands on the floor in front of them, their foreheads touching the back of their hands. Shinji was very surprised that they went so far as to assume a begging position.  
"Um, n-no need to beg," he said, blushing, "I-I'll accept your challenge,"  
"Thank you," the two of them said, getting back to their feet.  
"May we use your locker room to get changed?" Otomo asked, gesturing toward the duffle bags, "We've brought our uniforms,"  
"Sure,"

Shinji nervously asked the class to step off the dojo mat.  
"Um, class, I'd like to introduce you Katsuhito and his brother, Otomo," Shinji said, "They have come from the 'Hyusa School of Martial Arts' in Hokkaido and wished to challenge this school. It is going to be a two-on-two sparring session. Would someone like to volunteer to partner up with me to fight against these two?"  
He really hoped someone would step forward. He did not want to fight these two individuals alone.  
All the students looked at one another nervously. The had never seen something like this before, this school being challenged by another school.  
A wave of relief washed over Shinji as he saw Oki raise his hand. A second later, Emiko raised her hand.  
"I'd like to team-up with you, um, sensei," Oki said, stepping forward and bowing.  
"I'd like to join up with you, too," Emiko also stepped forward.  
Before long, everyone stepped forward, following Oki's lead. Shinji couldn't help but feel very relieved when he realized he wasn't going to be going about this alone.  
"Since Oki volunteered first, he'll partner up with me," Shinji said, "Can someone be referee. And please, be objective,"  
Several students looked at one another, wondering if that was a prudent choice. Oki was one of the newest students and had only been there for a short while. If the school was being challenged, more skillful fighters should fight.  
Oki approached Shinji and took position by Shinji's side.  
"Thanks," Shinji said softly to his friend.  
"No problem," Oki smiled, "I'm glad to help. I dunno how helpful I'll be, but I'm confident that I can be of some help,"  
"Well, it seems we can challenge you," Shinji turned toward the two guys.  
"Okay," they said in unison, "If you don't mind, we'd like to mentally prepare ourselves,"  
"Um, sure," Shinji said.  
Shinji watched as the two guy got down in to a sitting position, sitting on their calves and feet and closed their eyes. It only took a moment to realize that they were meditating. That was a very good idea.  
Shinji did the same, Oki following suit.  
The class watched in silent anticipation as several minutes elapsed, all four people on the dojo mat meditating. They seemed to both stop meditating and get up to their feet at the same time. They walked forward so that they were a short distance from one another, bowing to each other one last time. Stand right by them was a lone student whom had volunteered to referee the match and be as objective as possible.  
"Begin!" the referee said in a loud voice before stepping back and away from the group.  
The four combatants got in to their battle stances. Each one of their stances were unique, Oki assuming a traditional Mui Tai Kickboxing stance, his fists in front of him at head level, palms facing his opponents. Shinji was in a rather loose stance, his hands by his side, ready to react. Both Katsuhito and Otomo were in loose stance as well, one fist up by head level and the other by waist level.  
They all circled one another.  
Otomo dashed in, his speed surprising both Shinji and Oki. However, he targeted Oki first, executing a roundhouse kick toward the smaller of the two opponents. Unfortunately for him, he felt a searing pain shoot up his shin as Oki lifted on of his legs and blocked the attack with his own shin.  
Oki, seeing an opening, dashed in and executed a spinning heel kick toward Otomo's head as he was retracting his kicking leg. To his surprise, Otomo crouched low to the floor and executed a sweep kick perfectly, sweeping the young man off his feet where he fell to the ground and rolled backwards in to a flip and back on his feet.  
Shinji dashed in toward Katsuhito, leaning back at the last second as his opponent executed a front kick to ward his incoming dash. The foot missed hitting his chest by inches.  
Shinji leaned back forward and punched downward, hitting his opponent's retracting leg in foot, sending bolts of pain up through his leg. However, the pain seemed to urge his opponent to continue on as he retracted his leg back down to the floor and rested his leg on it, bringing his other foot around in a heel kick, kicking the surprised Shinji' in the side of the head, sending him staggering toward the side where he was kicked in the head again by Otomo as the man was getting up from having swept Oki.  
Shinji was sent staggering toward the other direction where he ducked the incoming roundhouse on Katsuhito, rolling on the floor and getting to his feet. He couldn't help but rub both sides of his head from the pain. These guys are very good, much better than anyone I've fought so far, Shinji immediately thought. Both of them can seem to work together as one and help each other out.

new stuff 9/30

Shinji and Oki looked at one another, giving each other a silent cue.  
Together, they both dashed in toward their closest opponent, Katsuhito. Oki did ran right up to him and used his amazing agility to stop instantly, executing a sweep kick to lure their target in to jumping over the attack.  
Shinji executed a jump kick on the jumping Katsuhito, kicking in right in the stomach and sending him flying backwards where he hit the floor a short distance away, rolling backwards and flipping back up to his feet.  
Oki stood back up from his sweep and executed a vicious roundhouse toward Otomo as he approached to help out. The kick easily caused the man to come to a sliding stop, warding him away from any attack, fearing Oki's kick. Otomo had recognized Oki's Mui Thai stance and did not want to get kicked by one of those kicks, kicks capable of breaking bones with little effort.  
Shinji got back up from the jump kick, resuming a full sprint straight toward the man he had kicked in the stomach. He kept his body low, arms wide as if to tackle the man.  
Katsuhito was surprised by the unorthodox approach, kicking upward toward Shinji's face he sprinted in. To the man'e isrprise, Shinji took no effort to dodge the attack, accepting the hit right in the face, gritting his teeth through the pain and the white spot that clouded his vision and continued sprinting forward, ramming the guy right in the chest, his forward momentum knocking the air out of his opponent's lungs and causing him to fall backwards where his back crashed on the floor, Shinji falling down on the man and assuming a mounted position.  
The man, familiar with the takedown, arched his back the moment he hit the floor, hoping to cause Shinji's forward momentum to carry him forward and falling off him. Unfortunately, Shinji had hooked his legs behind the back of his opponents knees and he didn't fall off, immediately assuming the mounted position once again as he brought his weight back and down on the man's stomach.  
Shinji coked his arm back as if to punch the man, "Do you yield?" He didn't want to punch the man. It would be brutally vicious since the punch would hurt the man and the back of the head hitting in to the floor would make it doubly damaging.  
"No!" Katsuhito said through clenched teeth.  
Shinji was just about to rain a fist down toward the man right in the cheek bone under his left eye, but he was stopped when a kick hit him from the side of his head and sent rolling off his opponent.  
Shinji rubbed the side of his head as he got back to his feet and watched as Otomo helped his brother back up to his feet. He glanced over toward the side where he saw Oki lying unconscious on the floor. A wave of anger enveloped him.  
What the heck did Otomo do to Oki?  
He regarded Oki for a moment and noticed he didn't look hurt. It looked like he was unconscious as if sleeping. Did Otomo choke him out? Did he know pressure points like Ranma?  
"He's fine," Otomo seemingly read Shinji's mind, "I didn't hurt him,"  
Shinji seemed to believe those words. There was no reason for the man to lie. Also, this made him realize it was now two against one. This did not look good. Both opponents rushed toward him, the two of them executing a roundhouse kick toward him from both sides. Shinji, realizing that he didn't have enough time to dodge it, raised on leg and blocked one kick with his shin in the same manner Oki had before. He used the arm of the other side of his body to block the roundhouse from the other direction.  
Shinji winced in pain as he stepped away. He could feel the bolts of pain shooting up his leg and his arm. Both opponents had amazing kicking power and Shinji was not used to blocking with his shin nor with his arms. He preferred to dodge when possible, which would had been easy had it been only one opponent he was facing.  
Shinji noticed that Otomo, was wincing in pain, his kicked having been blocked by Shinji's shin. However, he was surprised as the man clenched his teeth and brought the foot back down on to the floor to evenly distribute his weight, as if it didn't really hurt.  
Shinji looked toward the side and saw an incoming spinning heel kick from the other opponent. Fighting against his natural reaction to duck, he stepped forward and in the direction of the incoming attack, hooking one arm around the leg by the back of its knee, securing the leg between the crook of his shoulder and his neck.  
With the man balancing on one leg, Shinji pivoted on one leg and kicked the Katsuhito in the back of his balancing leg, kicking it out from under him while simultaneously snaking his arm around the leg he was holding.  
The man fell to the floor, his leg secured in Shinji's arms. Blood immediately drained from them man's face as he looked up and saw that his leg secured against Shinji's body in an Achilles Hold. Shinji leaned back slightly and applied a bit of pressure, digging his forearms in to the man's Achilles Katsuhito shouted in pain and immediately began tapping the floor to signal tapping out, that he gave up and did not want to continue fighting and risk the pain he could experience if Shinji put more effort in to his hold and really leaned back and dug his forearm in to his Achilles. He had had had used on him once and never wanted to experience such excruciating pain. The slight amount of pressure being administered was painful enough to have him give up.  
Shinji saw the tap-out and released his hold. One opponent down. One more to go.  
As he was about to turn around, to face his opponent, an arm shot in front of his head from behind, wrapping the front of his neck in the crook of the back of the elbow, a classic choke hold move. He also saw the other arm shoot forward from the other side of his head, the hand of the first arm coming to rest on the back of the elbow of that second arm as the hand of the second came back and around to the back of his head.  
Shinji's eyes widened as he realized that he was going to be choked out if he didn't do something fast.  
He reached an arm around and grabbed his opponent, Otomo, by the back of his head.  
In one fluid motion, Shinji bent at the knees, dropping his weight as he leaned forward at the waist, bringing the man forward and bodily over him. However, the man did not leg go and Shinji found himself actually flipping forward along with the man, tumbling on the floor where he came to rest in a sitting position on the floor, the man still behind him, his legs now wrapping around his waist from behind, the choke hold still firmly locked around him.  
Otomo, a bit dazed from the tumble, still had Shinji in his choke hold and that was what mattered. Knowing that if he didn't make Shinji submit, the young man would break out in a second.  
He tightened his choke hold which sent a wave of panic through Shinji's body as Shinji suddenly found himself totally unable to breath and all the blood flow to his head cut off. However, having been in life-threatening situations before, Shinji was able to control panic.  
He had around ten seconds before he would black out and fall in to unconsciousness. He looked down and noticed Otomo's leg wrapped around his waist, the feet locking around each other right in front of him.  
Shinji's body took on a mind of its own as he reached his right arm out and around the man's right leg, snaking it around so he could lock it in place close to his body and prevent him from freeing it. Using his other arm, he reached forward and grabbed the man's right foot, cranking it toward him so that the toes ended up facing upward and the sole of the foot pointed toward the left. The man screamed as he felt bolts of pain shooting up his right leg as he realized Shinji had seized his right foot and had applied an Ankle Lock, a technique every bit as devastating as the Achilles Hold that caused his brother to tap-out.  
Shinji continued to apply pressure, pulling the foot toward him and having it so that the toes started to point upward and toward him. As he kept doing so, the man suddenly released his hold and tried to swing himself around Shinji's right side to relieve some of the pressure being applied. When Shinji realized he could breath again, he quickly snaked the hand of his right arm completely under the seized leg and grabbed a hold of the forearm of his left arm, continuing to crank the foot toward him.  
To his surprise, Otomo did not tap-out. He continued to hold keep his choke hold on Shinji. Shinji, fearing permanently damaging the man's foot, didn't crank it more than he wanted to. However, he realized that if he wanted to be free from the choke hold, he would have to break the man's ankle.  
He could not bring himself to do that.  
After a few seconds, Shinji fell in to unconsciousness as he allowed him to get choked out.

Shinji and Oki bowed toward Katsuhito and his brother Otomo. It was nearing noontime and the four of them were standing just outside the outer wall surrounding the house and dojo. After the sparring session, the two guys had remained for a few hours afterwards, talking to Shinji and asking about the school and the kinds of training he did. Shinji had tried to answer their questions the best to his abilities.  
"Thank you for sparring against us," Otomo said, "This has been a very enlightening experience,"  
"No, thank you," Shinji said, "I'm glad to have sparred against individuals as skilled as you two,"  
"Are you okay, Oki?" Otomo asked, "I didn't hurt you did I?"  
Oki shook his head, "No. I guess I should have tapped-out when you locked that choke hold on me. I learned my lesson,"  
Everyone laughed.  
"Well, we're glad we fought you two," Shinji said, "I have no regrets losing to you,"  
Otomo and Katsuhito looked at each other.  
"Um, how come you let me win?" Otomo asked.  
"I didn't let you win," Shinji said, "You won because you choked me out. There was nothing I could have done. You won fair and square,"  
"But you could have broken my ankle and made me release my choke hold," he commented.  
Shinji gave a meek laugh, "C'mon, it's j-just a friendly sparring session. It should never result in something like that,"  
"Thanks for not breaking my brother's ankle," Katsuhito said, "He's very stubborn and it would have taken something like a broken ankle to make him realize that there are times when it's better to just give up than to keep on going,"  
"Um, er, no problem," Shinji said.  
"Well, it's best we be going now," Otomo said, "We enjoyed your hospitality and would really like it if you'd come and visit us up at our school in Hokkaido,"  
"We might do just that," Shinji said, "I've got your school's contact information. If we're ever in Hokkaido, we'll be sure to try and come visit,"  
"Thanks," they both said.  
"Hey," came a voice.  
The four of them turned their attention toward the voice.  
Their gaze came to rest on Ranma. He was by himself, everyone else having stayed at the beach. Since he had said he would be back then to help Shinji with teaching classes, he hadn't remained.  
"Ranma! You're back," Shinji said.  
"Yeah," he shrugged, "I would've liked to have stayed at the beach longer, but I promised to be back around now so here I am,"  
"Ranma? As in the master of the dojo Ranma?" Otomo asked.  
Ranma scratched his head, "Master of the dojo Ranma? I guess so," The two of them couldn't help but feel a presence to Ranma. They didn't need to see him fight to know he was an insanely powerful martial artist.  
Ranma regarded them for a moment. "Who might you two be? You're not students,"  
"We are two students from 'Hyusa School of Martial Arts'," Katsuhito said, "I'm Kastuhito. This here is my brother, Otomo,"  
"Your last name wouldn't be Stingray, would it?" Ranma smirked. He noticed the man had the same name as Sylia's father.  
"Stingray?" the man asked, "No. Why?"  
Ranma chuckled, "Nevermind. Well, it's nice to meetcha. From 'Hyusa School of Martial Arts', huh? What brings you here? Came to challenge my dojo?"  
"Um, actually," Shinji began.  
"We had challenged this school," Katsuhito said, "We fought a few hours ago,"  
"Cool," he said, "Well, I'm gonna go take a shower now. I need to wash all that seawater off me and get ready to teach the next class. It was nice meeting you guys,"  
Ranma headed in through the front gate.  
"He isn't interested in knowing about the outcome?" Otomo commented, a bit curious.  
"Ranma's like that. I think who won is pretty trivial to him,"

"Aren't you interested in who won?" Shinji asked Ranma. The two of them were in the dojo. She was expected to leave for the gym with Emiko shortly.  
Ranma shook his head, "Why? I already know,"  
"Huh?"  
"You lost," Ranma said, "There're are marks around yours and Oki's neck. Since there were two of them and I saw you and Oki gathered in front of the house when I got back, I assumed you two fought them. From the marks I see, you two were both choked out. You almost came close to winning though. I noticed them having a slight limp. I assume you applied some form of Ankle Lock or Achilles Hold on them but never went far enough to actually fully apply 'em,"  
"H-how can you know all of this?" Shinji asked.  
"Didntja just hear me? I said I saw the marks on yours and Oki's neck and the way they were limping," he said, "I don't know the exact details of it, but it seems like you two were choked out before you got around to fully applying those holds. Am I right?"  
"Um, well, yeah," Shinji nodded.  
Ranma smiled, "Good, I'm proud of you,"  
"B-but I lost," Shinji said.  
"So?" he said, "You probably could've won if you broke one of their ankles, but since it was a sparring match, you don't go that far,"  
"Um, that's true," he said.  
Ranma smirked, "They seem like powerful martial artists,"  
"They are," Shinji nodded in agreement.  
"I'd like for you to go visit their school on day and find out more about them," Ranma smiled, "Perhaps we can establish a friendly yearly tournament between students from that school and students from this school,"  
"Y-you want m-me to go to Hokkaido?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
"Yep. Not now, but one day, perhaps when you turn pro,"  
Shinji continued teaching morning classes. After classes ended, he and Oki would head out to the backyard where Oki would watch as Shinji went about kicking the wooden pole with his shin. Oki only stayed for a short while to encourage him on his training before he would leave to head back to the family restaurant to help out with business.  
Before long, Shinji ended up breaking the pole with a well placed kick. Of course, the pole was promptly replaced with a thicker one on Ranma's behalf where he would resume his usually training of kicking his shins against it.  
When noontime rolled around, he and Emiko headed to the gym, enjoying a leisurely walk. At the gym, they went about stretching before they would jog down to the park. Before long, they started jogging around the lake in the park a few times before heading back to the gym.  
The training in the gym remained relatively the same even as Shinji started getting stronger and stronger. The combination of diet and training had made his strength really noticeable. The weights of which he lifted reached Olympic feats for a person of his size and weight class most likely. However, since he had no idea, he continued to keep on lifting, knowing nothing about just how extreme the weights he lifted.  
Shinji started getting better and better at sparring.  
Around a week or so after he and Oki had sparred against Katsuhito and Otomo, Shinji finally defeated Oki in the ring, a feat that brought him great joy. Although he had only managed to win based on a technical knockout, it still meant every bit to him as if it were a true knockout.  
"Hey, this is your first win out of, what, several dozen loses?" Oki smirked, getting back to his feet. He couldn't help but be stunned at how improved Shinji had gotten. He used to be able to run circles around Shinji and landed countless punches before Shinji could land on. Now, he was landing punches very frequently.  
"This means a lot," Shinji almost felt like crying tears of joy, "I just got over a huge hurtle,"  
"You've got a point there," Oki said.  
Shinji and Oki continued to spar against one another afterwards. Oddly enough, it seemed as if Shinji's win was a fluke because he could not win against Oki anymore after that, Oki seemingly bumping it up a notch and starting to display how great a boxer he had become since he started training.  
"Man, you know what's weird?" Shinji asked one day, "Remember that sparring match we had against those two guys?"  
"Katsuhito and Otomo?" Oki asked.  
Shinji nodded, "I feel we fight so much better now than when fought against them. That match lasted for only a couple of minutes,"  
"Yeah, but unlike boxing, submission moves can easily end matches," Oki commented.  
"True," Shinji said, "I was surprised your opponent managed to choke you out,"  
"What can I say, I'm still new to submission moves," Oki said, "I did manage to land two really good knees before he twisted my arm and forced me to turn around to relieve the pressure. That's how he got me. You never taught me how to escape that move before then,"  
"You've got a point," Shinji said, "However, you now know how to break free from that arm twist if someone ever tries it again,"  
"I know," Oki smiled, "I learn from my mistakes,"  
After their training, Oki went on home while Emiko and Shinji went their own way.  
Emiko and Shinji had put the resort incident behind them, having forgotten almost completely about it. From time to time, Shinji found himself thinking about the spirit when they had accidentally kissed and if Emiko's lips felt quite the same but usually banished the thoughts before they could linger for long.  
Since they usually left the gym around two-thirty, they had plenty of free time. Every here and there, they would do some after-gym activity, usually making the plan on the spot.  
Over the next few weeks, they ended up going to see a movie together, visiting the park two more times, and going to a museum. Oddly enough, Shinji ended up placing an arm around Emiko the second time they went to the movies, but that was because Emiko was cold, most likely that is. It did make him wonder if he would put his arm around her even if she wasn't. However, he never thought much about it.  
The two visits to the park were much like the same as their first visit before, Shinji renting out a boat and rowing them both to the middle of the lake. On the third time out to the lake, Emiko had tried to row the boat, which Shinji allowed her, but she found it surprisingly hard to do, it requiring quite a bit of arm and back strength, something she lacked.  
"You shouldn't strain yourself anyway," Shinji had commented when he assumed the position in rowing again, "Besides, I'd feel really bad if I had you row and perhaps pulled a muscle or something," He didn't know if it had been Ranma that taught him that, or that it was him that taught himself that.  
The trip to the museum the two of them enjoyed. They had decided to go there one day when they saw a flyer for it posted on telephone poles on their way back to the house, most likely there as part of an ad campaign to attract more attendees. The museum was located a good distance away from the house, even farther than the planetarium. However, since they didn't mind each other's company, they didn't mind the long walk there.  
Inside the museum, the two of them learned quite a bit about this world's past.  
"You know what's funny?" Shinji smirked.  
"I know," Emiko smiled, "It's just like the planetarium. All of this stuff is false because our universe is only a few years old. However, I must say that the clues purposely dropped all over the place to be found does seem very convincing,"  
Emiko giggled, "If I recall correctly, you said that fact is stranger than fiction. I guess what we know does sound indeed stranger than what they're telling us,"  
"True," he shrugged.  
Shinji and Emiko couldn't help but be very surprised when they came across a small exhibit that displayed items recovered from the 'Nerima Massacre'.  
"Whoa, look at that," Shinji said, gesturing toward a giant spatula.  
"What about it?" Emiko asked.  
"That was one of the fully intact items recovered from the 'Nerima Massacre'," Shinji said, "That item exists from when Ranma was young. For all we know, Ranma might recognize that item as something from his childhood,"  
"But it's a giant spatula," Emiko said, "First, exactly why would something like that exist? Second, why would Ranma recognize something like that?"  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess you have a point,"  
He leaned over and reads the exhibit information.  
"A giant spatula recovered from the 'Nerima Massacre'," he read aloud, "One of the few item recovered fully intact. Believed to have been used as not only a cooking utensil but also as a weapon. Wielder of said weapon unknown but believed to have been on of the many victims that perished with the town,"  
"That's kind of creepy," Emiko commented, "I wonder if Ranma's ever been to this museum before. Perhaps it might bring back memories,"  
Shinji walked over to the next exhibit where he saw a partially charred mallet.  
"Item recovered virtually unscathed from the 'Nerima Massacre'," Shinji read the exhibit information, "Believed to be of ornamental significance and not used as a weapon due to its massive weight,"  
Shinji scratched his head, "That's weird. Of all things you find from a destroyed town, you find a giant mallet and a giant spatula. What the heck does that mean?"  
Emiko asked, "Doesn't Ranma mention something about Akane having a mallet?"  
Shinji laughed, "Heh, wouldn't it be funny if this was Akane's mallet?"  
The two of them laughed at the ridiculousness of the comment. After a moment, they looked around and notice there were no more items from the town destroyed so long ago.  
"What's strange is that I remember Ranma mentioning about how he got the nanban mirror from the museum," Shinji commented, "For all we know, it could had used to been one of the exhibits in this museum until Ranma's stole it,"  
Emiko said, "Perhaps,"  
"But then again, if Ranma stole it, and we ask someone about it," Shinji said, "That might make people suspicious if we ask about a stolen item,"  
"True,"  
Shinji said, "C'mon, let's go look around some more,"  
"Okay,"  
Aside from their visit to the movies, park, and museum, the two of them usually went home right after the gym. They spent most of their time in the backyard with Shinji training Emiko private lessons. They usually trained for a couple of hours before Emiko would head on to the dojo to spar against Asuka.  
Although Shinji was constantly training her, Emiko was constantly having problems defeating her. This could be because Ranma's and Shinji's training techniques were very much alike, Asuka improving at the same rate as Emiko. Since they were constantly improving at the same rate, Emiko continued to struggle against Asuka, but still continuing to defeat her in the end.  
Dinner was usually at the same time.  
After dinner, Shinji and Ranma continued sparred against one another. Shinji stopped receiving ki from Ranma before the start of every sparring session before long. This was because Shinji had discovered that he was slowly able to do it himself. "I figured it out," Shinji said, "How to summon ki,"  
Ranma smirked, "Really?"  
He nodded, "Yeah. I can't gather ki instantaneously like you can, but I can gather it if I meditate for several minutes,"  
Ranma smiled, "It's about time you finally noticed. I was starting to lose hope in you and figured you were never going to realize that. It took you about a week longer than the original time I figured you'd figure it out,"  
"I started figuring it out when I sparred against Ippo awhile back," Shinji commented, "Right before the match, I meditated. I did it because I was very nervous and wanted to calm down. It was the first time I meditated right before a fight. Anyway, because I did that, I was able to take more his from him than I should have,"  
Ranma smirked, "Ah. That kinda makes sense. I remember talking to Ippo not too long ago and he mentioned that fight. He mentioned about how surprised he was when you were able to stand after being hit by him so many times,"  
"It didn't occur to me until after I did it against when I fought against Katsuhito and Otomo," Shinji state, "I meditated before sparring against them. I did that to calm my nerves but I guess I accidentally discovered how to gather ki that way. The calmer you are, the faster ki you gather. Of course, I can't gather it like you, but I can gather it,"  
Ranma smiled, placing a hand on Shinji's shoulder, "Good job. I'm glad you finally figured it out on your own. If you continued on going without figuring out how to gather ki, I would've eventually told you. However, I'm proud you figured it out on your own,"  
s-shanks," Shinji blushed.  
"Of course, don't expect to be able to shoot ki-blasts without aide quite yet," Ranma commented, "You've got a long way to go,"  
"Well, I'm glad I figured it out," Shinji said, "I guess now I hafta practice at simply gathering it quicker,"  
"Right,"  
Shinji started meditating before each sparring session against Ranma. Unfortunately, he found out the painful way that him gathering ki on his own was significantly less effective than having Ranma give him the ki. However, he didn't seem to mind the extra bruises and cuts he received because he was simply happy at being able to start gathering it himself.  
The sparring session seemed to have taken several steps backwards initially, Shinji getting hurt much easier since his ki wasn't all that protective, yet. Ranma took it very easy at him, hitting him nowhere near as hard as he was used to hit him. Ranma adjusted his fighting style to accommodate the sudden change required to keep from hurting Shinji. However, Ranma knew it would be a long time before he could use quite a bit of strength behind his attack on Shinji and that it would be a while before Shinji would be able to gather ki effective.  
After the sparring sessions, Shinji enjoyed his time off. Because of his usually busy day, he usually ended up falling asleep somewhere around midnight, physically spent, waking up somewhere around eight to repeat his day all over again.

A couple of weeks passed without incident.  
During one random day, Ranma was rubbing his neck. He was starting to tire of sleeping on the couch. The plan was for him and Shinji to alternate sleeping on the couch for two weeks at a time, so that Emiko would have a room.  
It was a random morning when Ranma approached Shinji as Shinji was waiting to begin teaching his morning class.  
"Yo, you gotta minute?" Ranma asked, still rubbing at his neck.  
"Sure, what is it?" Shinji asked.  
"I think it's about time you and Emiko start sleeping together" Ranma said bluntly.  
"What?" Shinji's eyes widened, a huge blush on his cheeks. Where the heck did that come from? Him and Emiko sleep together? Whatever for! They were only friends!  
Ranma wondered what riled Shinji up all of a sudden. After a moment, he realized he should had been more careful in his choice of words. "Sorry, I guess that came out wrong," Ranma laughed, "What I meant is for you and Emiko to sleep in the same room. Frankly, I'm getting sick and tired of sleeping on that couch and I wanna start sleeping in my room from now on,"  
"But what about our plan to alternate sleeping on the couch," Shinji asked.  
"It was only temporary," Ranma said, "However, after around two months or so, it's starting to get annoying having to sleep on the couch when there's a perfectly good futon upstairs. Anyway, I think you two get along fine enough that it shouldn't be all that awkward for you and Emiko to sleep in the same room,"  
Shinji became silent as he contemplated this. "I can go out and get a futon for that room," Ranma said, "She can use that futon while you sleep in your own bed. However, if you want to sleep on the couch from now on, go right ahead,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, I prefer not to sleep on the couch if I don't hafta. Frankly, I was starting to tire sleeping on there as well. I just put up with it because you were putting up with it as well,"  
Ranma laughed, "Well, since it seems like we are in mutual agreement that it sucks to sleep on the couch, it's about time we do something about it. Do you mind sharing your room with Emiko?"  
"What about Akane? Or Asuka? Rei? Would they be interested in sharing their room?" Shinji asked. Although he didn't mind sharing his room with Emiko, the fact that they were of different sex made it a bit awkward.  
Ranma shrugged, "Well, Akane moves around in her sleep and might end up accidentally killing or at least seriously hurting Emiko. I doubt Emiko and Asuka would like being in the same room with each other more than they need to be since they kinda dislike one another, at least to an extent. And Rei? Well, she kinda freaks Emiko out,"  
"Rei freaks Emiko out?" Shinji was surprised.  
Ranma nodded, "I assume so. Since Rei is so quiet, the awkward silences would make things awkward for Emiko,"  
"And what about you?" Shinji asked. "I sleep naked from time to time," Ranma smirked, "It depends on how hot it is that night,"  
"Ugh, I didn't need to know that," Shinji shuddered. Ranma chuckled, "Anyway, since you both get along so well, I figure it wouldn't be a problem,"  
"I guess not," Shinji shrugged. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he would not have felt comfortable with sharing a room with Emiko, but it was different now. Heck, he didn't feel uncomfortable at the thought of sharing it with only her back at the resort not too long ago. Of course, Ranma ended up crashing with them, but even if he didn't Shinji probably wouldn'tve felt all that awkward.  
"Have you talked to Emiko about it?" Shinji asked, "What's her take on it?"  
Ranma smirked, "I think she won't mind,"  
"Hopefully," Shinji said.  
"Y'know what?" Ranma suggested, "Why don't the two of you go out and pick up an extra futon? Since Emiko'll be using that futon from here on, it's best that she choose,"  
"Um, I guess so," Shinji said.  
"Why don't you spend the day looking for it then?" Ranma smiled, "You can skip teaching today. I'll take over for ya. The two of you can spend the morning basically shopping,"  
"Um, you don't mind?" he asked.  
"Nah, not at all. Enjoy yourselves,"  
Shinji and Emiko walked down the street together that morning, already deep in conversation.  
"So that's basically it," Shinji said, "Ranma and I are kinda getting sick and tired of sleeping on that couch. Ranma suggested we share my room. Whatcha think?"  
"Um, I-I don't mind," Emiko said a bit nervously, somewhat flushed.  
"Ranma gave me the morning off so that we can go find you a good futon," he said, "He gave me plenty of money to get whatever futon you choose,"  
"Okay,"  
The two of them approached a store dedicated to the sales of futons located not too far away from the house. They had been aware of the store's location but had never found the need to go in until now.  
Inside, they looked around at the many futons on display.  
Shinji helped Emiko choose a futon. Funnily enough, while she was testing out one of the futons, Shinji had lay down on a random one and had ended up accidentally falling asleep on it.  
Emiko was very amused and couldn't help from smiling when Shinji woke up and momentarily forgot where he was.  
"Man, what the heck happened?" he said, "I just closed my eyes for a second and must've dozed off,"  
Emiko smiled, "Well, it seems like we've found the perfect futon. If you fell asleep that easily on it, then I'm sure I wouldn't have problem falling asleep on it as well,"

Shinji carried the giant box that contained the futon. Although the box probably weighed around a hundred pounds, the fact that it was so huge and he which prevented him from getting a firm grasp on it made carrying it much harder than he figured.  
"Man, thank goodness we live close by," Shinji commented, readjusting the box as it rested against his shoulder for the fifth time.  
"Are you sure you don't want my help?" she asked, feeling a bit bad that she wasn't burdening at least some of the weight.  
Shinji smiled, "Nah, I'm fine. You're welcome to try and help if ya want,"  
Although it was physical work, Emiko couldn't help but feel happy to be able to help. When Shinji placed one side of the box down so that Emiko could take a hold of it, she found out that it really was hard to grip the box firmly. The box was too big for her to hold correct and most of the work was actually on her fingers.  
Shinji smirked, "Y'see? This box is a pain. It's best that I just deal with it alone,"  
In one motion, Shinji lifted the box up, slipping it out of Emiko's small hands and burdening the weight all by himself. It was better this way. Shinji carried the box all the way to the house, Emiko holding the front gate and front entrance open for him. Once inside the house, he slowly made his way up the stairs, placing the box down finally once he found himself just outside his bedroom.  
"Man, what a workout," Shinji commented, wiping the sweat from his brow.  
He went about shoving the box in to his room, where he promptly opened it and grabbed a hold of the assembly instruction manual.  
"This looks complicated," Emiko said, noticing all the pieces of wood and screws that had come with giant futon mattress that came with the box.  
Shinji shrugged, "It shouldn't be all that bad. I've helped Ranma seal up giant holes in the house before. Assembling a futon shouldn't be all that bad,"  
He sat down on the floor and began leafing through the manual.  
"Would you like to help?" he asked. He didn't know how much help she would be, but she looked like she wanted to help out, constantly looking over his shoulder toward the manual. "Yes," she said eagerly.  
"Okay,"

Shinji laid down on his bed, satisfied with a job well done. The new futon had been finally built. And it wasn't even noon yet. It only took around an hour to assemble the futon base.  
"Thanks," Shinji said to Emiko, "Your help was greatly appreciated,"  
Emiko and Shinji worked well together. Shinji did all of the assembling work but Emiko had read the manual and pointed out what piece of wood went where and which screw screwed them together.  
"You're welcome," she smiled warmly.  
Shinji lay on his bed for a minute or so before he got back up, "Well, now that the futon base's built, we need to make room for it in this room. We can have this futon right in the middle of the room blocking everything,"  
"What do you suggest?" she asked.  
Shinji looked around his room for what could be moved to make extra room so the extra futon could fit in to the room okay. It didn't take him long to realize that he could moved the desk over to the corner of the room and that the futon could be placed where the desk used to be.  
"Let's move this desk over to the corner," Shinji gestured, walking over to where the desk was, "We can put the futon where the desk was after we move it,"  
"Okay," she said, following right behind.  
The two of them stood at either side of the desk, ready to lift it up. However, as they, Emiko handed anticipated that the front of the desk was very heavy. The desk ended up tilting forward where the two draws it contained fell forward and landed on the floor.  
"We should've taken those draws out," Shinji said, noticing the draws now on the floor. He forgot that Emiko wasn't used to carrying a lot of weight. Emptying the desk of its draws helped lighten the load significantly.  
Shinji spied an unfamiliar looking book in the draw that fell out. He didn't remember having that book in his desk before.  
"Hm, what's this?" he asked, placing his side of the deck back down and reaching down and grabbing the book. "Don't read it!" Emiko quickly said, realizing that it was the relationship book she had hidden. She figured the bottom of the draw would had been a good place to hide it.  
He looked at the and read the front cover.  
"I don't remember having this book," Shinji scratched his head.  
"Um, er," she stammered, blushing. He wasn't supposed to find that. What was she to do?  
"Is this yours?" he turned toward her.  
"Um, n-no," she quickly said, too embarrassed to say so.  
Shinji trusted Emiko and believed her. However, that still didn't explain why it was still there. He was still curious as to why it was there in the first place.  
He opened it up and began leafing through it.  
"Um, s-shouldn't we g-get back to moving this desk?" Emiko asked, hoping to distract him and turn his attention away from the book. The more he was in contact with the book, the more likely there would be a change the he'd figure it out it was hers, that it was a relationship book geared for a female reader.  
After a minute or so, Shinji shrugged and put the book back in the shelf. Perhaps he would read it one day. He could probably learn from that. Of course, he wasn't going to let Emiko know of his intentions simply because it was too embarrassing. Emiko felt relieved when Shinji gave up looking through the book, no longer interested.  
"All right, let's move the desk," he said.  
"Um, r-right,"

"Ranma, is this yours?" Shinji asked, showing Ranma the book. It was still sometime before Shinji and Emiko was expected to leave for the gym. He and Ranma were in the backyard, Shinji meeting up with him as he was heading toward the house from the dojo.  
Ranma took the book and looked at it for a moment. He recognized it. It was the same book Emiko had back then when he bumped in to her while she was on the way home from the bookstore.  
"Where'd you find it?" Ranma asked.  
"In my desk," Shinji said.  
Heh, Emiko doesn't seem all that keen about proper hiding places, Ranma thought with a smirk.  
"Yeah, it's mine," Ranma said, figuring he was doing Emiko a favor. For Shinji to be asking him that meant Emiko had dodged the question.  
"Oh," Shinji said, "How come it was in my room? Wouldn't you wanna keep it in yours?"  
"Hey, I don't want it found in my room," Ranma said glibly, "That's embarrassing. I'd rather it be found in your room and mistaken to belonging to you than having to deal with it myself,"  
"Gee, thanks," Shinji smirked.  
Ranma held his hand out and took the book, "Thanks for giving it back to me,"  
"No problem," Shinji said, "Well, it's almost noon now. Emiko and I should get going to the gym now,"  
"How goes the futon? I saw you carrying a huge box in and heard your hammering upstairs," Ranma asked, "I assume you were assembling it, huh?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. It's been assembled. However, I'm a bit perplexed as to why I've got a bag of extra screws that look really important,"  
Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Ah, it's probably spare screws,"  
"You think so?" Shinji sounded skeptic.  
"No. It's probably really important screws," Ranma chuckled, "However, you'll figure it just how important those screws were in the future, especially if the futon breaks on you,"  
"Great," Shinji sighed, "Something to look forward to,"  
"Well, I guess I'll leave you to go to the gym," Ranma said.  
"All right. I'll see you later," Shinji turned around and left the room.  
After Shinji left, Ranma looked down at the relationship book in his hands.  
"Heh, let's see how Emi-chan goes about getting this book from me," he grinned.  
"What's that?" Luna asked from behind Ranma, startling him.  
"Oh, hey, Luna," Ranma turned around.  
Luna looked at the book in Ranma's hands and read the front cover. "A relationship book, huh?" she smirked.  
"It's not mine," Ranma said, blushing, embarrassed.  
"I'm sure it isn't," she smiled, walking off.  
"I'm tellin' ya! It's not mine!"

Ranma waited until after Emiko and Shinji had gotten back from the gym to mention the book to her. It was only around four in the afternoon and he had been happy to have found her alone in the dojo doing katas after having been shown a couple of new techniques from Shinji right after the gym.  
"This yours?" Ranma smirked toward Emiko, gesturing toward the book in his hands. Emiko stopped what she was doing and easily recognized the book.  
"How'd you get that?" she asked, surprised. She had gone to the desk shortly after she got back from the gym to fetch the book and hide it somewhere else and had found it missing.  
Ranma said, "Shinji asked me about it and if it were mine. Oddly enough, this looks exactly like the same book I saw you carrying that day I bumped in to you and you dropped the book,"  
Emiko became silent. Had he told that he remembered seeing her with the book?  
"I told Shinji that this was mine," he said, "That way, it saves you the embarrassment of having to ask him for it,"  
He held the book forward for Emiko to take.  
"Um, thanks," she said gratefully, "Um, w-why? Why'd you do that?"  
Ranma chuckled, "Oh yeah, you still haven't gotten around to telling me about your crush on Shinji,"  
Emiko blushed, "I-I do not,"  
"Who're you trying to kid?" Ranma laughed.  
Emiko became silent.  
"Look, I know you got this book because you're interested in being more than just friends with Shinji," Ranma said, "I'm all for it,"  
He didn't bother to mention that he had been secretly working behind the scenes and trying to get them together, purposely having it so that they end up spending more time alone together.  
"In case you're wondering, the book is pretty useless," Ranma commented, "If you notice the author's name, it's written by a woman. A woman doesn't know how a man thinks. More than half the stuff in here is garbage,"  
Emiko was about to argue but found herself unable to say anything.  
"If you have any questions, feel free to ask me," he said.  
"W-why are you doing this?" she asked from out of the blue. She was very confused why he was doing that. She never asked for his help yet he seemed eager to help her.  
"I'm bored," Ranma grinned.  
Emiko face-faulted.

Several weeks passed without incident.  
The summer was nearing an end and Shinji was expected to go back to college for the upcoming Fall semester. It was a random evening, a short time before dinner started, when the phone rang. Shinji was walking down the stairs from his room at the time. He didn't bother to pick up the phone, believing it was some telemarketer.  
He chose to stand by the phone to make sure that it was before going about his business. After the answering machine picked up, he was surprised to recognize the voice.  
"Hey, Shinji, this is Priss, pick up the phone," came a female voice.  
Shinji picked up the phone, "Priss?"  
"Ah, Shinji, you're home. I'm glad," Priss said.  
"How're you doing?" he asked.  
"I'm fine. And you?" she asked.  
"Great," he said, "So, what do you need me for? How come you were asking for me?"  
Priss said, "I'm going to be going to Kyoto to do an autograph session. I was wondering if you would like to come with me, perhaps visit Sumi,"  
"K-Kyoto? Really?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
"Yeah, I know it's short notice, but I'm expected to be there a few-"  
"Yes, I'd like to come," he said enthusiastically.  
"Um, you didn't even hear of the time and day when I'll be going," Priss commented.  
Shinji smiled, "It don't matter to me. I'll make time,"  
Priss couldn't help but smile when she heard that comment.

new stuff 10/1

Sumi was bored. It was around nine in the evening and a Friday and she was in her room. She was standing in front of the mirror wondering what outfit she should wear for tonight. She had just gotten back home from her friend's, Alison's, house where she had had dinner there and was expected to head back out soon.  
She and Alison and Sen were expected to go out at around nine-thirty to see a new movie that came out tonight. Coming with her would be eight or so other people, most of them co-workers from each of their jobs, all of them eager to see the movie as well.  
There wasn't anything wrong with living in Kyoto and Kyoto nightlife but definitely found herself starting to get bored of constantly going out. She had been going out virtually every weekend since she got back home. Of course, she usually ended back home early because she worked over the weekends at her mother's restaurant.  
Going out at night usually took her mind off of the busy summer she had but she was starting to tire of it. Sometimes, she wanted to simply do nothing and perhaps waste away her weekends sitting in front of the television instead of going out.  
She sighed. It was too bad she rarely saw her friends over the weekdays and could only see them weekend nights.  
"Sumi, telephone," she heard the maid's soft voice as m down the hallway, "It's Shinji,"  
Sumi's heart skipped a beat. Did she hear that correctly? Shinji?  
She walked over to the phone that was on the night stand by her bed and picked it, a bit nervous about what to say. She had talked to him a few times on the phone over the course of the summer, but he usually called every couple of weeks. "Hello?" she asked, wondering if she picked the phone up too eagerly.  
"Um, Sumi?" came a nervous voice.  
"Shinji?" she recognized his voice, "How're you doing?"  
"I'm fine," he said, "And you?"  
"I'm fine," she replied.  
"Um, I was calling to see if you were, um, doing anything this Wednesday," he asked, "Um, I ask this because Priss is supposed to be in Kyoto for an autograph session,"  
Sumi said, "Oh, yeah, at the giant record store that's a few blocks from where I live. I remember passing by it and seeing the advertisement for it on the store window. She's there to promote her new album coming out,"  
She was looking forward to picking up the new album. "She's coming out with a new album?" Shinji asked in confusion, "That's news to me,"  
Sumi giggled. It was so funny how different Shinji's perception of Priss was from everyone else. To him, Priss was just a normal person he probably saw on a daily basis. Something important to a fan would be considered mundane to him concerning Priss.  
"Um, well, anyway," Shinji said after a moment, "She asked me if I wanted to bum a ride with her to Kyoto. Um, I did, I can come visit you for the day. T-  
that is, i-if you're not busy that is,"  
"You can come visit? This Wednesday?" she found herself having problems containing her happiness.  
"Um, y-yeah, if you don't mind," he said.  
"Of course I don't mind,"

Shinji sighed as he looked at the motorcycle as he stood in front of Priss' apartment building that Wednesday early afternoon. Since he had finished teaching his morning classes and he and Emiko had today off from the gym, the rest of his day was free.  
He chuckled as he noticed the parking ticket that was on it.  
Priss emerged from the building, clad in a tight-fitting outfit that seemed almost futuristic. It made Shinji note how odd looking Priss' motorcycle attire looked. However, it was probably for the sake of aerodynamics.  
"Ah, you're right on time," she smiled warmly, putting on a pair of shade to block out the sunny afternoon sunlight. She threw him an expensive pair of shades.  
"For me?" he asked.  
"Yes," she smiled, "It's sunny out and they're good to block out the sun from your eyes. You can keep 'em,"  
"Cool, Priss gave me a present," Shinji commented.  
Priss blushed for a moment. She then laughed as she realized Shinji was right. It hadn't occurred to her. What was even more funny was that Shinji was perhaps the first guy to actually receive a gift from her.  
"Thanks," he said, putting the shades on.  
Priss smiled as she noticed how cool Shinji looked, "Perfect,"  
"What I don't understand is that if we're gonna be wearing helmets, then what's the use of wearing shade because the helmets have the visor," Shinji commented. She smiled. The comment made it so very evident that Shinji was definitely saw her as a friend instead of some super-famous rockstar. She liked that. She liked being reminded that she was just a normal person and made mistakes as well. Shinji was much like Ranma and kept her down-to-earth.  
"Well, you've got a point with about the shades," she laughed, "I guess it's the thought that counts,"  
"I guess," he chuckled.  
Priss walked over to her bike.  
"Wanna drive?" she asked him.  
Shinji shook his head emphatically, "No way!"  
"All right. Just asking," she smiled, "So, what do you and Sumi plan on doing once you get there?"  
"Sumi said she got the day off," Shinji said, "She called about that on Monday. She said she'd show me around town and show me some sites,"  
Priss smiled, "Sounds like a good idea,"  
"Your autograph session is at five, right?" he asked.  
"Yeah," she said, "I'll be at the record store until seven. After that, I'm free, we can go get dinner before coming back,"  
"Okay," he said, "I figure we can check out the town and then come visit you at the store around then,"  
"Sure. If you'd like, bring Sumi and her friends along. We can all go out to dinner together,"  
"Okay. I guess,"  
Priss turned her attention back on to her bike. She crumpled the ticket and threw it away before hopping on. She handed Shinji the extra helmet as she put hers on, the both of them removing their shades before doing so.  
"Are you gonna go real fast?" Shinji asked.  
"Hell yeah," she smiled.  
Shinji sighed.

Sumi's heart skipped a beat as she heard the intercom come to life at around two-thirty as she was walking by. She listened as the maid answered it, overhearing the conversation and finding out that Shinji was just outside the main gate.  
"I'll go meet up with him," Sumi said, checking herself in the mirror one last time. She had been expecting him and had dressed up nicer than usual, "How do I look?"  
"You look fine," the elderly maid said in a warm voice.  
Her maid couldn't help but smile. She remembered Shinji from earlier in the summer. For Sumi to go through so much trouble of dressing up more than usual must mean she liked him or at least thought highly of him.  
"Thanks," Sumi said before heading out the door.  
Sumi met up with Shinji at halfway point.  
"Hey," Shinji smiled, wondering if he should give her a hug. Didn't that what people do when they hadn't seen each other after a long time? He choose to just give her a courteous bow and a warm smile instead. No need acting too familiar with her. It might freak her out.  
"I'm glad you could make it," Sumi smiled warmly in return.  
Shinji noticed how nice Sumi looked wearing a yellow sleeveless sundress with flower prints on them. She had a large brimmed hat that helped shield her eyes from the sun and wore nice gold earrings that sparkled against the sunlight.  
"Um, you look nice," Shinji commented. He remembered skimming through the book and it mentioning about how girls liked compliments.  
"T-thank you," she blushed, "I'm glad you like it. You look nice too," Shinji looked down at himself. He wasn't wearing anything special, much like Ranma and lacking a sense of fashion. All he had on were a pair of loose-fitting slacks and a short-sleeved button up shirt. "Um, thanks," he said, wondering what was so nice about his outfit. After a moment, he realized something, "Ah, I've got something to add to it,"  
He reached in to his pocket and pulled out the pair of shades Priss had given him and put them on. Sumi couldn't help but smile as she noticed how cool Shinji looked.  
"Those are nice," she said, "Where'd you get them?"  
"Priss gave 'em to me," Shinji said, "I guess she gave it to me as some kinda present or so,"  
"A present? Really?" Sumi was surprised.  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess so. Who knows. This is probably one of her old pair of shades that she wanted to get rid of since she probably bought a new one,"  
Sumi giggled.  
"I dunno," he shrugged, "However, I like 'em,"  
"I'm surprised you got here so quickly. You said you were going to leave from MegaTokyo at around noon. It's only half-past two," Shinji gave a meek laugh, "Priss drives her motorcycle insanely fast,"  
"You rode on Priss' motorcycle here?" Sumi was surprised. She figured he probably would had been on Priss private limo or so.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. She doesn't like tour buses or limos so she uses her bike instead. She dropped me off and left. I really dunno where she went but I have her cell phone number so I can call her whenever I want,"  
"Wow, that's amazing, being able to ride on Priss' motorcycle," Sumi said, "You're so lucky,"  
He gave a slight smile, "I dunno about that. It's really scary being on the bike with her since she goes so fast. She averages around two hundred miles per hour on that bike all the way here,"  
"It does sound scary," Sumi commented. She remembered her ex-boyfriend had pushed his car to around that speed, to show off and race against someone and show that a supped-up car easily beat out one of those more expensive super-  
cars.  
"Anyway, I'm glad I got here all right," Shinji chuckled slightly, "So, what's on the agenda? You have any plans on what to do?"  
Sumi nodded, "Yeah. I figure we can go to the fair,"  
"Fair?" he asked, a bit reluctant.  
"No, it's not like the amusement park you and Meito and I went to with roller coasters and all," Sumi commented, "It's one of those block-party type fairs,"  
"Oh, I understand," he said, "That sounds like fun,"  
"There's an aquarium that opened up a few months ago," she said, "I haven't been there yet. I figure we can go there,"  
"Sounds good to me,"  
"I don't know what to do after then," Sumi gave a meek smile, wishing she had more plans. It took her all day to come up with that plan to begin with.  
Shinji shrugged, "Don't worry. By then, it'll probably be after five. We can go to the record store and hang out with Priss for a bit. Afterwards, we can go to dinner with her, that is, if you want to,"  
Sumi smiled happily. "Of course I want to,"  
Shinji walked with his hands in his pockets. Sumi noticed this right away as they headed down the street. She had been wondering if he would hold her hand, but felt stupid for even thinking about that. They weren't even a couple. She regarded him for a moment. He was such a stark contrast to her ex-  
boyfriend, Tou. Shinji was most likely good boyfriend-material. It made her wonder how come she never noticed this about him during her first semester since they had been in the same classes together when they started school together last year. It's because we never actually talked, she thought. On occasions, we would say hi to each other, but that's it. I never got to know him until last semester and he's a really nice guy.  
Sumi wondered why she ended up with Tou as a boyfriend and not Shinji. After a moment of silent contemplation, she knew why. Because it had been her first time away from home and she latched on to the first stable person that came her way. She had felt insecure being in a new environment and wanted someone by her side. Perhaps Tou's badboy image had attracted her to him. He was large and tough-  
looking, a man who could protect a girl if need be. Shinji was like that as well, perhaps ten times better. A young man that didn't need to show off how tough he was. It was as if he knew he was tough and was content about it and didn't care if anyone else acknowledged it, like a form of quiet confidence.  
He was definitely good boyfriend-material. "How far's this fair?" Shinji asked.  
Sumi blushed as she wondered he had seen her paying extra attention toward him.  
"Um, i-it's just two block away from here," she answered, pointing, "It's just around that corner. If you look, you can see that blockade there that blocks the entire street off from cars,"  
"Ah, yeah, I see," he said.  
The two of them continued on their way.  
Sumi wondered how Shinji viewed her. Would he consider her a good girlfriend? Sure, she had made a mistake of having Tou as a boyfriend, but that was in the past. The problem was that she had no idea. Shinji made no indication whether or not he was interested in her. She knew he definitely considered her a friend. Otherwise, he wouldn't be here visiting and hanging out with her. However, was he interested in being more than just friends?  
She looked at the small space between Shinji's arm as he walked with his hands in his pocket. Should she put her arms through the crook in his arm? Guys were supposed to make the moves, right? Should she wait or take the initiative? His reaction might help indicate what his true feelings toward her were.  
But I'm not like mom, Sumi said. Mom believes that if you're interested in someone, you should go after him. That's how she got dad. However, my heart's racing at the thought of doing that.  
She reached out to put her arm through Shinji's arm, pulling back at the very last second.  
I can't do it, she said. I'm too nervous.

Shinji won prize after prize at the fair. He played many games, Sumi standing next to him rooting for him.  
He played a dart game, hitting the bull's eye on the very first prize.  
"Wow, that's amazing," Sumi had commented, "How'd you learn to have such good aim throwing something like a dart?"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, would you believe it's from my training in throwing rocks?"  
Sumi gave Shinji and odd look.  
"I know, it's pretty hard to fathom as well," Shinji chuckled, "However, it seems the training helped,"  
"What kind of training?" she asked.  
"I used to throw rocks toward this small can located on the other side of my backyard," Shinji said, "I've been doing it for a while. For months, I couldn't even hit the can. However, as time progressed, my aim got better and I was able to get it to land in the can from time to time. After a couple of years, I can get the rock to land in the can every time,"  
"Wow," she said.  
Shinji shrugged, "Ranma started training me in that a long time ago, before he died,"  
"Huh?" she asked.  
"Um, before he went away," Shinji said quickly, "I tried even after he was gone for a while. When he came back, he was surprised I have perfectly a accurate throw,"  
"Wow, that's amazing," she commented.  
"It seems to finally start showing that the training really helps," he chuckled.  
"It really does," she said.  
"All right, let's go play some more stuff," he smiled, enjoying himself and being with Sumi.  
"Okay,"  
Shinji went on to win more prizes at different games, landing free throws with basketballs with ease, tossing ten yen coins over a counter and having it land on a plate without falling off, throwing a ball and having it knock over bottles stacked in a pyramid.  
By the end of an hour, Shinji had five giant stuffed animals and were carrying four of them, two under each arm, Sumi carrying the fifth one in both of her arms. Not wanting to carry the prizes to the aquarium, the two of them headed back to Sumi's house to drop it off.  
"Heh, it seems like that stuffed dog, 'Bitch', will have new friends?" Shinji smirked, referring to the name of the stuffed dog he had won at the amusement park for her a while back.  
Sumi laughed, "Yeah, you're right,"  
"How's 'Bitch' doing anyway?" he asked.  
"She's fine. She's been lonely," Sumi laughed, "But I guess that won't be the case anymore,"  
The two of them laughed.  
Shinji was glad he came to visit her.  
Shinji and Sumi walked near the back of the group of people. They were all taking a tour of the aquarium. They chatted as they walked from exhibit to exhibit, stopping to listen to the tour guide and absorbing what the man said before they moved on to the next exhibit.  
Shinji and Sumi were learning a lot at the aquarium. The tour guide, a middle age man that was a marine biologist that worked at the new aquarium as a side job, was very informative and articulately answered questions any of the fifty group members asked.  
The exhibit that impressed everyone the most was the shark exhibit. They all stared in awe as they stood in front of a giant window that was made of a combination of plastic and glass that was probably around fifty feet high by eighty feet wide.  
Shinji tapped the glass, "How thick is this glass?"  
He figured there must be a tremendous amount of pressure on it from the water of the shark exhibit. There was easily enough water in the exhibit to fill two or even three Olympic-sized swimming pools. The glass itself probably weight a couple hundred tons.  
"It's fifteen inches thick," the guide said, "And, yes, it's plenty thick,"  
"Thanks. I was just curious," Shinji said. He couldn't help but wonder if Ranma could actually poke a hole right in to the glass. Knowing Ranma, he could probably slice his fingers in to the glass like it was nothing. Shinji wondered when he would be able to do something like that. Being able to do something like that would be cool.  
The tour of the aquarium was very informative and Shinji and Sumi emerged from there believing they had learned quite a lot.  
"Did you enjoy the tour?" Sumi asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I learned a lot. I'm glad I came. However, there was one question I am curious about but felt stupid about asking,"  
"What?" she asked, wondering if she could answer his question. "If all those organic sponges in the ocean disappeared, what would happen to this world?" he smirked, "Would our water level rise?"  
Sumi giggled, realizing it was just a joke.  
After a moment, she said, "I kind of wish I asked them how much the water level would rise if Antarctica did melt? I figured they'd know,"  
"About two hundred feet," he said.  
"Really? How do you know?" she asked.  
Shinji gave a bit of a smile, "Oh, just a hunch," He figured it was best not to tell him that a good portion of his world was underwater because the ice in Antarctica had indeed melted. He'd seem like some kind of crazy person if he said that.  
Shinji couldn't help but notice that he felt a bit sad not being able to talk about something like that with Sumi. There was so much about him that he wouldn't mind telling, but telling her would make her think he was insane or making everything up.  
It was different with Emiko. She knew where he was coming from and could relate to him. Their conversations had been very thought-provoking, especially after they had gone to the planetarium and commented about how all that was told was actually wrong. Emiko? Why did he think of her all of a sudden?  
He shook his head, banishing the thought.  
Sumi smirked, "Hey, I just realized something. If all the ice in Antarctica did melt, there might be a way to keeping the sea-level from rising up by two hundred feet,"  
"How?" he asked curiously.  
"We can start breeding sponges,"  
Shinji laughed, Sumi laughing along side him.  
He was very glad he came to visit to visit her.

Shinji and Sumi entered the record store at around six. They immediately knew where Priss was, their gaze following the long line that snaked through one side of the store and up to a table. They saw Priss with four giant bodyguards standing by either corner of the table.  
"There she is," Shinji pointed.  
"But we hafta wait on line," Sumi commented.  
Shinji, totally unaware of what he was doing, grabbed a hold of Sumi's hand and pulled her along with him, "Nah. There's no need. We can just stop by and say hi,"  
"Um, okay," Sumi said, following closely behind, blushing slightly as she felt her hands in Shinji's. His hands were bigger than hers and felt rather soft and his finger supple. It was very different than what she originally believed. She figured it would be tough and callused from him training so much.  
Shinji and Sumi walked up to the side of the desk where Priss was sitting. She was busy signing autographs that she didn't even notice them until her peripheral view caught sight of one of her body guards stepping over to block someone.  
"Sorry, but you're gonna hafta wait on line," the burly man closest to him said.  
Sumi gulped. That was on big guy. He stood what looked like a good foot taller than Shinji. He was probably a hundred pounds of pure muscle heavier also.  
Shinji recognized the bodyguard. It was the same man that had been by Priss' table back in MegaTokyo when he saw her in the bookstore.  
He lowered his shades, "Hey, you remember me?"  
The man looked regarded Shinji for a moment, not recognizing him.  
"I was the guy at the bookstore in MegaTokyo," Shinji commented.  
The man showed no signs of recognition. If he did, it didn't seem to matter.  
"Priss!" Shinji called out to her, feeling that it was better to deal with Priss instead of the bodyguard. He was there to meet up with Priss, not her bodyguard.  
Priss looked up from what she was doing and spotted Shinji. A big smile appeared on her face, glad to have a familiar and friendly face there to greet her. Sure, all her fans constantly showed their love of her music and their admiration of her. However, a friend untouched by her fame was what she needed right now.  
"Shinji!" she said happily.  
She spotted Sumi standing next to him. She couldn't help but smirk when he saw the two of them holding hands.  
"Aww, that's so cute," Priss smiled, "You're holding hands,"  
Shinji looked down and realized that he had been holding Sumi's hand. He didn't even realize it until Priss pointed it out. When the heck did he grab her hand? Something like hold a girl's hand should make him very self-conscious and aware of it.  
He quickly released his grip as he and Sumi blushed.  
"Have a seat," Priss gestured toward the seats to either side of her. Since she had anticipated that the two of them would visit her, she had asked for two extra seats. She simply hadn't anticipated that Shinji and Sumi would be holding hands though.  
Shinji and Sumi sat down next to her to either side.  
"Man, I'm glad you guys are here," Priss commented.

Shinji sat next to Sumi in the table booth. In front of them was Priss.  
It was around eight and they were all in a booth located in the corner of the restaurant, away from public view. "I hope you don't mind the light bulb being dimmed," Priss said, "That way, I won't easily get recognized and we can enjoy our meals without me being interrupted all the time to sign autographs,"  
"You don't mind?" Sumi asked.  
Priss shrugged, "It does get bothersome from time to time. But I deal with it. It's when I'm doing stuff like eating or just trying to relax that it gets annoying. I set aside a certain amount of time every day to sign autographs. It's the time when it isn't during those hours that kinda annoy me,"  
Sumi gave a sheepish smile, "I-I'm glad I got your autograph during your autograph session then. Thanks for letting me bypass the line and get your autograph along with your new album,"  
"No problem," she smiled.  
The waitress came up to their booth to take their order. She immediately recognized Priss and started telling her how much she admired Priss and the music she made.  
"Thanks," Priss said.  
"Can I have your autograph?" she asked.  
"Um, sure," Priss said.  
After Priss gave the girl her autograph, they were allowed to order their meals. They indulged each other in conversation as they waited for their food to come. When their meal came, Priss figured it would be a good time to ask. She had been curious to ask this question since she saw Shinji and Sumi holding hands.  
"So, are you two a couple or what?"

"You can borrow my bike," Priss smirked, "You can give her ride home on my bike,"  
The three of them were standing in front of the record store where Priss' bike was. It was somewhere around nine-thirty. After the autograph session, Shinji and Sumi and Priss had walked a block down to the restaurant where they got dinner. After dinner, they walked back to the record store where Priss' motorcycle was.  
Shinji shook his head, "N-no, I c-can't,"  
"C'mon, you already know what does what," Priss said, "It's just a matter of applying what you know,"  
"I can't," Shinji said, continuing to shake his head.  
Priss, knowing that she shouldn't be pushing Shinji in to doing something he didn't want to do, turned toward Sumi, "All right, I guess I'll take you home,"  
"Um, o-okay," she said nervously. She remembered Shinji mentioning about how scary it was to ride with Priss on her bike.  
"Don't worry, I'll go slow," she noticed the reluctance in her face.  
"Okay," she felt a bit better, but not by much.  
Priss hopped on her bike and put on her helmet. She handed the spare helmet to Sumi who put it on. After a minute, she reluctantly hopped on to the back of Priss' bike.  
"Um, I'm glad you came to visit," Sumi looked at Shinji.  
Shinji smiled, "I'm glad I came, too. I had a lot of fun,"  
"Do you think you'll be coming around again before the end of the summer?" she asked, "We've still got a few more weeks left,"  
Shinji shrugged, "I really dunno. However, if I can, I'll try,"  
Priss smirked. She was going to make a mental note of that. If she wasn't busy, she could probably set something up so that she would be in Kyoto once again before the end of the summer. However, she had no idea if she would be here again. She was a very busy person and nothing was guaranteed.  
"Well, if I don't see you again, I'll see you when the semester starts," Sumi smiled warmly. She was even looking forward to going back to class. That meant she would be seeing Shinji on a daily basis.  
"Yeah, I'll see you when the semester starts," Shinji nodded.  
"Um, t-take care," Sumi said.  
"You too," he said.  
He looked over where he regarded Priss as she looked over toward him.  
'Kiss her, fool' Priss mouthed the words to Shinji.  
Shinji's heart started racing. Now was a time to kiss her goodbye, wasn't it?  
He looked toward Sumi and noticed that she had the helmet on and that kissing her would not be possible. The silent look he gave back to Priss indicated his dilemma.  
"Well, I'll be back later," Priss said after a moment, realizing Shinji was allowing the opportunity to slip right through his fingers.  
Priss turned on her bike and gave the throttle a few quick pumps, revving the engine.  
"Just wait here for a short while," Priss said, "I'll be back to pick you up in a short while. We'll head straight back for MegaTokyo from here,"  
"Okay," Shinji said.  
Priss popped the bike in to gear, the back tires of her bike burning out for a bit before she and Sumi sped off, Sumi with her arms wrapped tightly around Priss.  
When the sounds of the roaring engine disappeared, Shinji pace back and forth in front of the store. It wasn't all that late and he could pass his time watching the cars come and go in the parking lot of the shopping center that had the record store.  
He smirked, wondering if he had made the right decision, to not kiss her. Her helmet was on and she would have had to take it back off so that he could kiss her.  
I probably would've kissed her if she didn't have the helmet on, Shinji thought. As he sat there, he wondered what would happen, how Sumi would react. Shinji had never really kissed a girl before at least not voluntarily. It made him wonder if he could kiss well. Didn't people need practice? Or was that a natural talent?  
He wish he knew. If he didn't know how to kiss, he wish he could learn or at least train much like he did with martial arts. However, that would never happen. Only with experience could that happen. He needed to start sometime.  
Shinji only needed to wait for around fifteen minutes before Priss came back to pick him up. Since he had been distracted and deep in thought, Priss had wanted to surprise him in the usual manner, coming to a screeching halt right next to him, the back wheel of her bike coming off the ground as she performed her usual 'stoppie' trick.  
To Priss' surprise, Shinji didn't get startled in to falling down like usual. Instead, he looked over toward her and took a quick instinctive hop backwards, assuming a battle stance. This made Priss further realize just how much Shinji was growing before her eyes.  
Unlike previous times, where Shinji would fall down, panic preventing his legs from moving properly, he was able to react and suppress the urge to panic and even reacted, jumping away and to safety.  
The sight of Shinji doing that reminded her of the first time she did that to Ranma. Ranma had reacted in the exact same way, reacting to the situation rather than feeling overwhelmed by it.  
"Man, I wish you'd stop doing that," Shinji said, assuming a normal standing position after realizing it was only Priss.  
Priss smirked, "I know. I think I've got another one or two more times before it no longer works on you,"  
Shinji shrugged.  
Priss threw Shinji the helmet.  
"Hop on. Let's head on back,"  
Priss brought her bike to a rest in front of Shinji's house a little after eleven at night.  
Shinji hopped off the bike and took of his helmet, handing it to Priss.  
"Thanks, Priss," Shinji said, "I'm really glad I came with you,"  
Priss took off her helmet and smirked, "You would've been even more happy if you ended your night with a kiss,"  
"You think so?" he asked, blushing.  
She nodded, "Of course. It's a great way of saying goodbye,"  
Shinji said, "I guess you do have a point,"  
He looked at Priss and saw her smiling at him.  
"Wait, y-you want me to kiss you? Now?" Shinji became very nervous and flushed.  
"What!" Priss' eyes widened as she blushed, almost falling off her bike.  
He looked confused, "D-dontcha want me to kiss you?" Priss was blushing a deep shade of red, "Not me! I meant Sumi!"  
"Oh!" Shinji said.  
She bonked him on the time of his head, "Jeez! Don't scare me like that!"  
"S-sorry," Shinji said in embarrassment, giving a very meek smile.  
"Save your kiss for Sumi," Priss smiled, "As flattered as I am that you would kiss me, you're too young for me,"  
Shinji gave a meek laugh.  
"Anyway, the next time you hang out with her or something, I recommend you kiss her goodbye," Priss suggested.  
"I-I'll try," he said, "I-I probably would've tried kissing her...but she was wearing that helmet,"  
Priss shrugged, "So? You could've just took it off,"  
"I guess," he said, "I guess I chose wrong,"  
"Well, you're learning," she smiled, "You'll get the hang of it soon enough,"  
She yawned. "Well, I guess I'll be going now," Priss smiled, putting her helmet back on, "I'll be seeing you and the others for Friday dinner,"  
"Okay," he smiled, "Thanks for bringing me out there. I really appreciate it,"  
Priss smiled, "No problem. Watching you getting closer with Sumi is thanks enough," However, she said that last sentence almost too softly for Shinji to hear.  
"Huh?" he asked.  
"Nevermind,"

Almost the rest of the summer went by without incident. A couple of days before Shinji was expected to start attending class, Linna called the house early in the morning, around the time when Shinji was about to start teaching his morning class. She called the house on occasions to say hi and talk to Akane, but this time around, she called asking for Shinji. "My, aren't we getting popular with the ladies?" Akane smirked. She had been the one that answered the phone.  
"Who is it?" he asked, figuring it might be Sumi.  
"It's Linna," Akane said, "She's asking for you,"  
"F-for me? What for?" he was very surprised.  
Akane shrugged, "I'm not too sure, something about a competition,"  
"Um, okay," Shinji didn't know what to say. What competition was Akane talking about? A martial arts competition? Why would Linna call him about that? He wasn't allowed to enter martial arts competition upon Ranma's request.  
He took the phone and brought it up to his ear.  
"Hello?" he asked.  
"Shinji," Linna recognized his voice, "It's Linna,"  
"What's up?" he asked.  
"Um, well, I was calling to see if you're going to be free this upcoming Saturday night," she asked.  
Shinji thought for a moment. He didn't really have a life. He usually spent his Friday and Saturday nights at home. The only person he could hang out with was Oki, but Oki was young and had rather strict parents that didn't allow him out much later than ten in the evening.  
"Free? Yeah, I'm free," he said, "Why?"  
"There's a ballroom dance competition I would like to enter with you as my partner," she said after a short pause.  
"What?" he gasped.  
"Linna called me earlier today," Shinji said to Emiko.  
It was in the afternoon as he and her were in the middle of their run toward the park to start off their training at the gym.  
"Oh?" Emiko asked, "What for?"  
"She called to ask me to enter a ballroom dance competition with her,"  
"What?" her eyes widened.  
Shinji smirked, "That's the same reaction I had,"  
"W-what did you say?" she asked. She couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy and hoped he had said no.  
He said, "I told her to let me think about it. It's this Saturday so we've got a little under a week to come up with a dance routine. Even though it's basically a last minute thing, she believes that we have a really good chance of winning,"  
Emiko was silent as she continued to run along side him.  
"What do you think?" she asked, "I think it'd be fun. You think I should do it?"  
She wanted to say no. However, remembered reading in the relationship book that it was best to let him be free to do what he wanted. Guys usually asked a girl for a suggestion not because he wanted it. She believed guys wanted asked that to let the girl know what he was going to do and simply wanted her to feel like her input mattered. She ended up saying, "Y-you think it's fun? If you want to do it, then go right ahead,"  
"Cool," he said, "I think I'm gonna go visit Linna after the gym,"  
"Y-you are?" she asked. She felt a tinge of jealousy envelop her.  
"Sure," he nodded, "I haven't stopped by in a while. I figure I can talk to her in person. Her gym isn't all that far away and I figure I can stop by on the way home. You wanna come?"  
Emiko shook her head, "N-no. There's no need,"  
"All right," he shrugged, "I probably won't take long anyway. I'll be back soon enough to help with your training,"  
Emiko thought for a moment. There was no reason for her to be jealous. It wasn't as if she had exclusive-rights to Shinji. If he wanted to visit Linna, he was free to. He was his own person. However, for some reason, she couldn't help but still feel that tinge of jealousy.  
"All right, now that that's over with, let's enjoy our jog together," Shinji gave a warm smile.  
Emiko blushed.  
"Hey, Miri," Shinji smiled to the counter girl.  
"Oh, hey, Shinji," the young girl smiled to him. As she looked at him, she couldn't help picture Shinji and Linna ballroom dancing in the other room since the last time she saw him.  
"Is Linna here?" he asked.  
The counter girl nodded, "Yes. However, you're a bit early. She doesn't get out for another half-hour,"  
Shinji shrugged, "That's fine. I can wait,"  
"Okay," she said, "Feel free to do a few exercises if you like,"  
"Sure, thanks," he said.  
Shinji walked right over to dumbbell rack.  
"Hm, how much did I do last time before Linna interrupted me?" he asked himself, "Oh yeah, I lifted a hundred and eighty pounds three times,"  
He scooted over to where those dumbbells were. Surprisingly, he found them missing.  
Someone must be using them, Shinji thought.  
He scooted over to where the next higher increment of dumbbells, a hundred and ninety pounds. He picked them both out and curled it around three times per arm before he realized he wasn't going to bang out twelve repetitions, too tired from working out at the gym.  
Wait a minute, Shinji thought as he scratched his head. I did a hundred and eighty pounds three times before I went to the gym back then. Now, I'm doing it three time with a hundred and ninety pounds after the gym. Shouldn't I be having a lot of trouble lifting this much? Sure, Emiko and I stopped at the restaurant and got ourselves a mid-afternoon lunch before splitting up, but that was only around a half hour. Do I recover that quickly?  
Shinji thought about it for a short while, trying to figure out what he could had done or eaten that made him recover so quickly.  
I wonder if I always recover this quickly, he thought. After the gym, I always lounged around the house for a couple of hours before sparring against Ranma. Perhaps that's why Ranma spars against later in the day, probably because he knows I'll be fully recovered by then and can give it my all. Shinji walked over to where the hundred and sixty pound dumbbells were. Lifting it up, he managed to bang out twelve repetitions on each arm before putting it back on the rack, physically spent.  
"Well, I guess now I know what I can do when I'm still recovering," Shinji sat down to rest for a couple of minutes. Little did he know that several of the larger gym patrons were talking to each other about what they had just seen, if they had actually seen that small young man curl that much weight that many times.  
Shinji felt satisfied with his arm strength. This made him curious as to the strength of some of his other body parts. He didn't need to figure out how much his shoulders could press overhead since he did that constantly with around a hundred an eighty pounds now for six sets of twelve repetitions. I wonder how much I can lift if I went for a single set and maxing out my weight, he wondered. I should be able to do around two hundred and twenty or so pounds. However, if I'm expected to press it overhead and use just my shoulder, then I can't use my legs to help create the momentum to power it up. Perhaps I can only do two hundred pounds if I use my shoulder muscles exclusively.  
Shinji looked over toward the squat rack where he saw an empty Olympic bar resting on it.  
Hm, I wonder if I can break that with my bare hands, he thought. I remember Ranma asking me to break a bokken with my bare hands. I wonder how far along I've gotten. Can I do that with this bar?  
Shinji laughed.  
"What the hell am I thinking?" he said, "A bokken is wood. This is solid steel. There's a big difference there,"  
He continued to regard the bar.  
"Man, wouldn't it be cool if I could do that?"  
Linna startled Shinji when she tapped him in the shoulders as he regarded the bar.  
"Whoa, I didn't see you there," Shinji blushed, a bit disappointed in himself for being so distracted that he didn't sense her approach. He was starting to grasp the idea of how to sense his surroundings and should had been able to sense Linna. Then again, he still had much more to learn about that. He could definitely sense someone approaching if he was meditating. When he wasn't, it was a bit harder.  
"So, have you decided?" Linna got right to the point.  
Shinji thought about the competition for a moment. Ranma had said that he wasn't to enter martial arts competitions but he never mentioned about entering other types of competitions. Although the thought of dancing in front of a crowd made him nervous, teaching martial arts class made him used to being watched. Besides, it could be fun.  
Shinji smiled, "Yeah, I'll do it with you,"  
Linna blushed as she noticed Shinji's choice of words.  
"That's cool, but what about the ballroom dancing competition?" she smirked jokingly.  
"Huh?" he scratched his head.  
"Nevermind," she laughed.

The first class of the Fall semester began a few days after that.  
Shinji took in a breath of fresh air as stood in front of 'D Cluster', ready to go to his first class of the semester. It was eight in the morning.  
Shinji's new class schedule had it where his first class started at eight in the morning and ended at noontime. One even days, he had no breaks during that time since he was attending three classes for that day. On odd days, he had an hour break between his first and second class, him only having two classes those days.  
Asuka's and Rei's class started later in the day so he didn't have to worry about walking with them to school, Ranma assuming the responsibility of walking them to school as well as walking with them back, which was at three. He waited around, wondering how Sumi was doing, if she was living in the same dorm apartment as before. He didn't have to wait long before Sumi rounded the corner of the building, walking with her Meito. He automatically assumed they were living in the same dorm again and had morning classes at the same time, walking together from their dorm.  
"Ah, Shinji, it's nice seeing you again," Meito greeted him warmly.  
"Morning," Shinji's greeted Meito and Sumi.  
He noticed how Meito looked relatively the same since when he last saw her before the beginning of their summer break. The only difference was that her long blond hair was cut a good deal shorter. Sumi looked the exact same as when he had last seen her a few weeks ago.  
They all stood around and talked to one another for a short moment, most of it Meito talking about what she did over the summer, about how she traveled all over Europe for most of her break. During that conversation, Shinji found out that Sumi hadn't seen Meito since before summer break, only talking to her on the phone.  
It was determined that Meito's classes started later in the day and she had been there to go to the registrar to fix a slight mess up with one of her classes. She had registered for a class that was later in the day, not early in the morning, wanting to sleep in late.  
It was also determined that Sumi and Meito were once again housemates and living in the same dorm building. The only difference was that she lived in a different dorm on a different floor. However, since all dorm rooms were the same, it felt much like they were in the exact same dorm as before.  
Before long, Meito realized the time and had to excuse herself and headed off, leaving Sumi and Shinji by their lonesome.  
Shinji looked at his watch.  
"Class is gonna start soon," he commented, "Man, it looks like it's gonna be another semester of long nights of studying and countless hours of homework,"  
"Oh joy," she said sarcastically.  
The two of them laughed as they entered the building.  
And so started the new semester.

After classes, Shinji headed straight for the gym, arriving their at shortly after twelve to meet up with Emiko. Because he had known about his class schedule ahead of time, it meant that he could continue attending the gym at the usual time like summer. The only difference for Shinji was that rather than teaching classes and training at kicking that wooden pole early in the morning, he no longer taught classes and nor kicked at the pole until after he got home, pushing back training Emiko until he finished teaching his afternoon class.  
Shinji's gym training remained the same, the only difference being Shinji's improvement in the sparring session of the training, him slowly starting to beat Oki every here and there. Before long, they would be even with one another. He was looking forward to being able to becoming as good a boxer as Oki.  
After the gym, Shinji and Emiko headed home where Shinji taught his newly designated afternoon martial arts class. At the conclusion of teaching, he then went on to kicking at the wooden pole and strengthening his shins. After a short time of doing that, he taught Emiko for the rest of the time until dinner rolled around. After dinner, he sparred against Ranma for a couple of hours before he was finally free to spend his night either studying or doing whatever he wanted.  
Shinji's eating habits remained relatively the same, eating healthy all the time. The only difference was that he now ate a different variety of foods rather than constantly eating the same foods. For instance, instead of eating steamed chicken and steamed broccoli, he could eat foods that had similar nutritional value.  
All in all, Shinji's schedule hadn't changed much, his schedule shifted around to accommodate his morning classes. That was all that had changed.  
A couple of days after his Fall semester started, Shinji paced nervously around in his room.  
He was clad in a tuxedo that fell very constricting and stiff on him. However, he did look rather handsome in it.  
It was a Saturday night and Linna was expected to be by the house soon to pick him up. They would be going to a dance hall where a fund raising charity was being held. Over the course of the week since the phone call, Shinji had somehow found time to visit Linna at the gym to practice a routine Linna had come up with that was sure to win them the first place prize.  
There was a knock on the door.  
"C'min," he said nervously.  
Emiko opened the door and entered. She was dressed in an evening dress that Akane had lent her. She had this blush on her cheeks because she rarely ever wore dresses. She was dressed nicely like everyone else downstairs. They had all decided to attend the fund raiser and see Shinji and Linna dance.  
"Wow, you look nice," he commented.  
"T-thanks," she said nervously, "Y-you look really n-nice as well,"  
"Thanks," Shinji adjusted his bowtie, "Man, I'm really nervous, and I'm not even at the fund raiser yet," He didn't bother to mention that the thought of Ranma and the others being there watching was what made him really nervous. He had never anticipated that they would be there. Why did Ranma have to decide to go on whim and everyone else tagging along?  
"I'm sure you'll do fine," she said.  
"Thanks, I really hope so," he said.  
"Anyway, I came up to tell you that everyone is ready and that Linna's here," Emiko said.  
"Okay,"

"I'll have you know that I can do ballroom dancing as well," Asuka said in a huff.  
She was dressed very nicely in an red evening gown that made her seem very sophisticated and mature. She and everyone else where seated by a large table near the edge of a large dancing floor that had a live-band by the front.  
Ranma, who looked devastatingly handsome in his own tuxedo, said, "You're jus' jealous. You wanna get that kinda attention,"  
Asuka let out a snort, "Yeah, whatever you say, Ranma,"  
It was useless to really argue against him. Quick in wit, Ranma was a hard person to argue against.  
"When's the competition start?" Nene asked.  
Linna and Shinji were not at the table, having headed off to be among the competitors, awaiting for their number to be called when the competition started.  
Sylia said, "In a few minutes,"  
"Hey, after the competition, the band'll play some music," Misato said toward Ranma, "Would you be interested in dancing?"  
"Jeez, is this some kinda pre-emptive request for a dance on Misato's part?" Ritsuko smirked, almost kicking herself for not having thought that first.  
Ranma crossed his arms over his chest, "Nope. I ain't dancing,"  
"Why not?" Misato asked, "Shinji's going to be dancing,"  
"Shinji's Shinji. I'm me," Ranma shrugged, "I've never danced before so why should I start now?"  
"It'll be fun," she said, "I can lead you,"  
"She'll trying to lead him off the dance floor and straight to the bedroom," Priss snickered, smirking.  
"What was that?" Misato narrowed her eyes, pretty sure she heard that correctly.  
Priss shrugged, "Nothing,"  
"I'm not interested," Ranma said.  
The lights dimmed down around the entire room, the lights centered over the dance floor remaining brightly lit, signaling the start of the competition.  
The group watched intently as a host came to the center of the dance floor and thanked everyone for being there for the fund raiser. After a short speech, he announced the commencement of the dance competition.  
"Bring out Shinji and Linna!" Ranma cheered, "We came to only see them!"  
"Fool," the girls scolded Ranma.

Shinji and Linna won second place. Their routine was amazing and should had won them the competition but a mistake made on Shinji's part had cost them the points that would had won them the first prize.  
Shinji and Linna walked up to the table and sat down. Right by them was this giant trophy. Not quite as large as the first place trophy, but large enough.  
Neither of them seemed to be disappointed upon the placing.  
"You two did great," Sylia smiled warmly.  
"Thanks," Shinji said, "I wish I didn't miss that step back there, but I was so nervous that I was surprised I only made one mistake,"  
"That was great for a first time," Akane commented, "You two looked like you had a lot of fun and that's what mattered,"  
"We did have fun," Linna smiled, "It's really nice finding someone that enjoying dancing like I do and is actually competent at it,"  
"I know how to ballroom dance as well," Asuka commented.  
Ranma smirked, "So why don't you dance with Linna. I'm sure all that guys at the judges panel will vote for you two,"  
"What?" Asuka and Linna blushed.  
Ranma laughed. Akane punched him in the face.

new stuff 10/2

Ippo approached Shinji in the middle of his training about a week after school had started. "You're progressing really well," Ippo commented, noticing how much weight the young man could put up on the clean and jerk and power snatch exercises.  
Shinji smiled, "Thanks,"  
"At the rate you're going, you're gonna dominate your weight class," Ippo said, "You probably nearing a hundred and sixty pounds, give or take a few pounds. You've gained close to around twenty pounds of pure muscles since you started, all of it well distributed,"  
"Thanks," Shinji said, "However, it doesn't feel like I'm a hundred and sixty or so pounds. I feel even more agile and nimble than when I was lighter,"  
Ippo nodded, "That's because you're probably in better shape now that you've ever been. Your body fat percentage is nearing around two percent, perhaps even one. When you started, you were around eight percent. You move faster because you're not carrying excess weight in fat,"  
"Oh," Shinji said, "But what about the extra pounds in muscle I've gained. Shouldn't that throw off my speed?"  
Ippo shook his head, "No. The extra muscles help make you faster and stronger. That's because you're not getting larger and bulkier like most people do when they gain muscles. You've basically remained the same size as when you started, perhaps gotten slightly more muscular. Your muscles are significantly denser than normal, which is a very good thing. That's basically why I weigh so much even though I don't look it. It's because of the denser muscles,"  
"Thanks," Shinji smiled, "It's all because of your training. Those weight lifting exercises are doing wonders for me. I'm glad I'm not getting bulky and big. I like my current size,"  
Ippo smiled, "I'm glad to hear that. Anyway, as to the reason for my approaching you, I've noticed you and Oki are about even with your sparring sessions,"  
Shinji smiled, "Thanks. It took a lot of knockdowns and losses before I was able to beat him. I'm shocked that I'm able to beat him almost as much as he beats me,"  
"Unfortunately, I think it's time you and Oki stop sparring one another," Ippo said.  
"Stop? Why?" Shinji didn't understand.  
"Actually, not necessarily stop sparring, but more along the lines of stop sparring him exclusively. You're both in different weight classes," Ippo said, "Oki's faster and lighter. You're getting used to fighting against someone like Oki. However, your weight classes are much different. You need to fight opponents that are stronger and slower than Oki. You're getting used to being hit by Oki and don't understand the difference in power. In your weight class, one or two solid hits can knocked you out. You need to start fighting different fighter,"  
"What do you suggest?" Shinji asked.  
"It's time you start adjusting your start training downstairs," Ippo said, "Downstairs is where all the seasoned fighters fight. It centers around sparring and becoming an experienced fighter instead of training your body like up here,"  
"What about Emiko?" Shinji asked, "We train together,"  
Ippo nodded, "I understand. However, it's time your training changes. She will be working out up here while you downstairs,"  
"But I don't want that," Shinji said. He didn't like the thought of not being able to train along side with Emiko. He had gotten used training with Emiko. Although he wasn't positive, he had a good feeling that she enjoyed training with him as well.  
"What, you would rather continue training with Emiko?" Ippo asked, smiling slightly.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
"Well, I guess you can continue training up here," Ippo shrugged, "I'll just ask for the fighters from down there to come up here to spar you like Oki does,"  
"You can do that? Thanks," Shinji smiled.  
"However, you guys won't training together, per say," Ippo said, "Your training is going to change so that you don't do speed bag or punching bag or weightlifting. Instead, you'll be fighting multiple opponents after your roadwork from here on. Emiko's training will be the same so you won't be doing speed bag or weightlifting with her anymore,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Nah, it doesn't bother me much, so long as I know Emiko's nearby or at least on the same floor as me,"  
Ippo smirked, "Oh? And why is that?"  
Shinji blushed, "I-it's not like that. It's just that..."  
He wondered exactly what the reason was. Was it because he liked knowing that Emiko was nearby when he was training? Had he grown so accustomed to having her close by that he would feel uncomfortable training if she wasn't?  
Ippo smiled, "Well, anyway, your training will change. I don't see a problem in you continuing to train up here even though you should be training downstairs,"  
"Thanks," he said, "Just curious, just what is downstairs anyway?"  
"Oh, that's where the advanced fighters train," Ippo answered, "People like Oki train there. Ko recently moved down to training down there as well. That's why you don't see him up there,"  
"Like what is it?"  
"It's kind of like up here but larger," Ippo said, "It's got four rings instead of one. Everyone down there spars. They've gone through training similar to your own and have progressed to doing mostly sparring. There are speed bags and punching bags down there as well where they alternate between sparring and working the bags,"  
"Oh,"  
"Anyway, you can probably continue to train here until your pro test," Ippo said, "After then, you need to start training downstairs. You need to focus mostly on sparring and sparring on the only ring up here is hogging it to yourself. Other people need to use this ring as well. However, since there's just about a month before your pro test, the others should rd hrstand,"  
"Thanks,"  
After their training, Emiko and Shinji stopped off at a Chinese restaurant to get something to eat before heading on their way home.  
"Ippo asked that I start training downstairs from now on," Shinji stated.  
"What? R-really?" Emiko asked, surprised.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. He says it's time I train downstairs because there's only about a month before my pro test and I should be sparring all the time. There are four rings down there so I won't be hogging the ring upstairs,"  
Emiko became silent for a moment. If he did start training downstairs, that meant they won't be training together anymore. She would no longer feel motivated to go to the gym anymore if that was the case. Several weeks ago, she had come to the conclusion that she no longer felt motivated to go to the gym to train and become a better fighter, but because she and Shinji would be training together.  
"W-what did you say?" she asked. Shinji said, "Well, I said I'd prefer to say upstairs and continue to train with you,"  
"Y-you did?" Emiko blushed, her heart skipping a beat. Had she heard that correctly?  
Shinji nodded, a bit embarrassed, "Yeah. I guess I got used to training with you, or at least having you around that it would feel weird training when you weren't around,"  
"I-I'm glad to hear that," she said, feeling warm inside.  
The two of them continued on home.  
As they did, Emiko noticed that Shinji had placed his hands in his pockets. She wondered if she should put one of her arms around his. Shinji having said that he wanted to stay upstairs in the gym to train with her was a sign that he wanted to be with her. But was it a sign that he saw her more than a friend? Was she supposed to take the initiative and put her arm around Shinji's?  
"How come your trailing behind?" Shinji asked, noticing Emiko wasn't walking along side him like usual.  
Emiko blushed, "Oh. Sorry. I guess I was daydreaming,"  
She quickly rushed up to walk along side him. She didn't put her arm around his though, to nervous and shy to do so. Besides, it wasn't all that bad.  
Shinji wasn't going anywhere and she had plenty of time to get over her shyness around him.

A few days pass without incident.  
Shinji ended up coming home with a few more bruises than usual, but it didn't seem to bother him.  
"What's with all those bruises?" Luna asked as she regarded him. They were gathered around the backyard, Shinji having bumped in to her as he was heading to the dojo to teach his afternoon class.  
"My training at the gym's changed," he answered, "After Emiko and I finish our roadwork, I spar against different opponents,"  
"You don't spar against that nice young boy, Oki, anymore?" she asked, "I remember you mentioned that you and him spar against one another exclusively,"  
Shinji nodded, "We did. However, since it's getting close to the pro test for the both of us, I, as well as Oki, hafta start sparring against different opponents to get used to different fighting styles,"  
"That makes sense," Luna said.  
She placed her hands in front of Shinji's face and said a chant as her hands suddenly glowed. Shinji felt a tingling sensation around his face as the bruise magically disappeared.  
When Luna pulled her hands away from his face, Shinji touched his face and felt no more soreness, the bruises gone.  
"Thanks," he said.  
"No problem," she smiled warmly. She brushed aside one of his locks of hair that fell down over his forehead and over one of his eyes, "Your hair is getting long. You should cut it,"  
Shinji nodded, "You've got a point. I haven't cut my hair since before I started going to the gym. I really should go cut it,"  
She smirked, "Why not go ask Emiko to cut your hair,"  
"Emiko? She can cut my hair?" Shinji was surprised. He never knew that and he thought he knew quite a bit about her. She shrugged, "I assume she could. She's very skilled with a dagger so I wouldn't be surprised if she knows how to cut someone's hair,"  
"You think I should ask her?" he asked.  
"Sure," Luna smirked.  
"I guess it couldn't hurt,"

Emiko looked up from her manga book toward Shinji.  
She had been sitting on her futon in his room when he found her. It was night, somewhere around ten and shortly after he and Ranma had finished their sparring session.  
Shinji smirked. He wondered when Emiko started reading manga. Asuka tended to read those things a lot. He never figured Emiko would start reading those. Perhaps he was more of a normal girl than he had originally believed.  
"Are you busy?" he asked.  
"Um, not really," she asked, "Why? What's up?"  
Shinji gestured toward his hair, "Um, would you be interested in cutting my hair? Luna mentioned that you're good with a dagger so I figure you'd be good at cutting hair,"  
Emiko blushed, "Y-your hair? You want me to cut your hair?"  
"Sure, if you don't mind," he nodded.  
"Um, s-sure," she said, "I'd be happy to," That had to mean something. For a girl to trust a guy cutting her hair, that was one of the ultimate forms of trust. A girl would most likely never allow a guy to cut her hair. It was that important to her. However, it seemed that that was not the case to a guy. To a guy, hair was hair. He had the option of going with a bald look and look fine, a bit different, but fine nonetheless. Perhaps that was why a guy didn't really care if a girl messed up cutting his hair.  
"Can you cut it now?" he asked.  
"Um, sure, if you'd like," she answered, "H-how would you like it cut?"  
Shinji shrugged, "I dunno. I guess just cutting it short, like the way I usually have my hair is fine,"  
"Um, o-okay,"

The next day, Sumi noticed that Shinji had a new haircut. She had noticed it right away as she approached him as he waiting by the front of 'D Cluster' for class to begin.  
"You got a new haircut," she commented.  
"Thanks," he shrugged. He didn't really care if anyone noticed if he got one or not. Like most guys, he didn't even care if anyone acknowledged that he got a new haircut.  
However, he couldn't help but feel a bit happy that she did notice. That meant she paid attention and noticed changes to him.  
"It's like when I first saw you," she commented.  
"Um, okay," he shrugged again, "Thanks,"  
"Where'd you get it done?"  
"Nowhere," he answered, "I had a friend cut it for me,"  
Sumi wondered what was it with guys not going to a hair stylist to get their hair cut. Even if it was a friend doing the deed, how could guys trust anyone other than a professional to cut their hair? "Your bangs don't fall down and cover your eyes like before," she commented.  
"I guess," he said, "Now, I don't hafta constantly brush my bangs to the sides,"  
"When was the last time you got your hair cut?"  
Shinji scratched his head, "I'm not too sure. I think a few months ago,"  
"Wow, a few months without cutting your hair?" she was surprised, "I usually cut my hair every month. It's usually just a little bit so it's hard to notice when it's been cut,"  
Shinji felt a bit bad that he didn't notice something like that. Didn't girls like it when guys noticed they got a new haircut or wearing a new outfit?  
"Well, it looks nice," she smiled. "Thanks,"  
Sumi changed the subject and the two of them talked about something else. Before long their classes started.  
"Haircut?" Oki asked, Shinji's first opponent for the training session.  
"Yep," Shinji said.  
"Cool," Oki smirked.  
That was all that was said about Shinji's haircut.  
Shinji smirked. There was such a difference in how guys and girls thought about something like a haircut.  
"Wow, Emiko did a good job," Luna commented.  
Shinji, done with training at the gym, was home and about to get ready to teach his afternoon class. Luna had been the first to notice. She would've seen it yesterday but had gone to sleep before he had his hair cut and had been out jogging when he left for school. "Thanks," he smiled.  
"It looks nice," Akane commented.  
"Emiko did it," he said.  
"She did a good job, I like it," Akane said.  
"Yeah, I like how she trimmed the front," Luna said.  
"Yeah, his bangs don't cover his eyes," Akane said. "She did a good job cutting the back as well," Luna said, "It looks professional,"  
"I agree," Akane nodded.  
Luna said, "It's nice that she left the sides basically alone. I probably wouldn'tve looked all that great if she made them very short,"  
"I wonder how he would look if he got his hair spiked," Akane commented.  
"I don't know," Luna shrugged, "Shinji wouldn't look good with a spiked haircut,"  
"You've got a point," Akane said.  
Shinji looked at his watch and was very happy when he noticed the time. He didn't care about his hair. Why was everyone making a big deal about it?  
"I've got to go teach class," he said before quickly leaving.

Shinji sighed as he emerged from the house, on his way to the dojo to teach his afternoon class. Rei and Asuka had even spotted him and noticed his haircut. Asuka had made a big fuss about it, saying how ugly it looked and how it seemed fitting for someone supposedly ugly like him. Rei had made a few comments about how it looked like how he usually had it.  
"I wonder where Shinji is," Ranma emerged from the dojo, about to head to the house to find Shinji, wondering why he wasn't in there since class was about to begin soon.  
Ranma's question was answered when he saw Shinji walking across the backyard toward the dojo.  
"Yo," Ranma smirked, "There you are,"  
Shinji sighed. Yet another person to comment about his haircut.  
"Just say whatcha want," Shinji said, "But class is about to start,"  
"Huh? Whatcha talking about?" Ranma scratched his head, wondering what had him so upset.  
"My haircut. Aren't you going to comment about my haircut?" Shinji asked.  
"You got a haircut?" Ranma shrugged, "So?"

A couple of weeks pass without incident.  
Shinji found himself nervous for no apparent reasons since he was constantly thinking about the impending pro test. However, he seemed to hide it well. However, he didn't seem to hide it well enough.  
Sumi noticed it a while back but had said nothing about it. She noticed he seemed to have developed this odd habit of zoning out as if daydreaming and did it much more often than usual, as if something was on his mind and not because he was bored of class.  
"Is something the matter?" Sumi asked one day in between classes, concern in her voices, "You've been, I don't know, constantly zoning out,"  
"Oh, is it that evident?" he asked.  
"Yeah," she nodded, "Sometimes, it looks like you're staring off in to space billions of miles away. Is something bothering you?"  
Shinji shrugged, "Not necessarily bothering me. It's just got me on edge,"  
"What seems to be the matter?"  
"My pro test is coming up really soon," he answered her, "It's only a couple of weeks away,"  
"A pro test?" she asked. She remembered him mentioning something about that but didn't really know what it was about.  
"A couple weeks from now, I go to this place called Kourakuen Hall," Shinji said, "It's the same place where my trainer and coach, Makunouchi Ippo, took his pro test. Anyway, there's supposed a written test that pertains to general knowledge of boxing and such,"  
"But you're good at test-taking," Sumi commented.  
Shinji nodded, "I know, but that's not what I'm worried about. I'm going to be getting in the ring and fighting other people and in front of several judges. If I don't do well, I won't get my boxing license,"  
"Oh,"  
"Ippo says I'll do fine, but I'm scared I'll be so nervous that I'll mess up my chance at becoming a pro," Shinji said, "Also, I've never really boxed in front of an audience before. I've had people watching me, but that's because they go to the same gym I go to. However, for the pro test, it'll be total strangers,"  
"I'm sure you'll do fine," she said confidently.  
"I hope so," he said, "I really hope so,"  
"Hey, is it okay if I sess visit you at the gym?" Sumi asked, "I've been meaning to ask you about that,"  
"Huh? You wanna come visit me at my gym?" Shinji asked.  
Sumi nodded, "Yeah,"  
She had talked to her mother, Sayuri, the night after Shinji had left after visiting her in Kyoto. She had wanted to ask her if it was okay to take the initiative and put her arms around a guy's arm. Her mother had said it was fine and that if Sumi wanted to take it one step farther, to get to know more about a guy's likes and dislikes by being there and experiencing it rather than hearing about it. Shinji thought about it for a moment. He wouldn't mind it one bit. It also made him smile. Perhaps Sumi was showing an interest in what he did after class. That was a sign right?  
"Sure," he said, "That'd be cool,"  
It would be a good opportunity for him to introduce the two of them to each other. He was pretty sure neither of them were aware of one another.  
He could have Emiko meet the girl he liked.

"Well, I guess I'll be going now," Shinji said to Sumi.  
"Okay," she smiled, looking at the piece of paper, "Thanks for the directions,"  
"What time do you plan on showing up?" he asked curiously.  
"At around one," Sumi said, "That's when Meito gets out of her class. I know it's nearby, but she can drive me there and it'll save you the trouble of having to walk me back,"  
"Okay,"  
"Besides," she gave a meek smile, "It's be a bit awkward with me being there by myself. At least with Meito with me, she can keep me company while you do whatever you do at the gym,"  
Shinji smiled, "That sounds like a plan. Also, you can meet my friends. They train with me also. I'd like to introduce you to my friends,"  
Sumi smiled. This definitely meant something. Shinji was going to introduce her to his friends. Perhaps he was interested in her. She was interested in him. Perhaps things might turn out well. However, she wasn't her mother and rushed in to something like a relationship. She wanted to just take it easy and let things happen at their own pace.  
"Well, I'll see you then," Shinji walked off.  
"Okay,"

Shinji smiled. That was what he needed, someone to keep his mind off his upcoming pro test. Also, if things went well, Emiko would like Sumi. There was no reason for Emiko not to like her. It was the same the other way around. There was most likely no reason for either of them to dislike one another.  
He had decided not too long ago that Emiko should know about Sumi. Although he usually went to Ranma for advice, he feel comfortable enough that he could go to Emiko about advice pertaining to girls. Their conversations would probably be a bit different since that opened up the subject of relationships. Once Emiko knew about Sumi, he could talk to her about her. Perhaps Emiko could give him advice about girls that not even Ranma knew about. But then again, that would probably be impossible since he seemed to know women extremely well and what made them tick.  
He smiled again, excited about the thought of having Emiko and Sumi meet.

Shinji did really well against his opposition. Even the veteran fighters were having problems against him. Something made him fight better. It was as if his mind was somewhere else and it preventing him from realizing that punches from his opponents were supposed to hurt.  
"What's with Stumble?" a gym patron asked Ippo whom had been helping him out with an exercise.  
"Dunno," Ippo regarded Shinji in the ring as he beat down third opponent straight. Shinji usually lost to the third opponent. He said, "However, Shinji does seem happy. If being happy is what makes him fight better, then all the more power to him,"  
Ippo was surprised that Shinji was doing so well. Shinji had even defeated Oki with relative ease, something that even surprised Oki since they were supposed to be evenly matched. The opponents he fought after Oki were much stronger than Oki and had punches that could easily knock Shinji out. However, Shinji was able to brush off the punches and even deliver punches that resulted in knockdowns. That was quite a sight to behold.  
Ippo had noticed that every time someone opened the door to come in to the gym, Shinji would glance toward the door.  
"He must be expecting someone," Ippo commented, returning to helping the gym patron.  
At around half past Shinji's training session, the door opened and in entered two females. Everyone in the gym noticed them as they entered and stood by the entrance. One of them was about to approach them until he saw Ippo approach them first.  
"Hi," Ippo greeted them, smiling.  
"Um, hello," Sumi said nervously.  
"I'm Ippo," he smiled.  
"I'm Sumi and this here is my friend, Meito," Sumi said, gesturing.  
"It's nice to meetcha," he said, "So, what can I do for you? Are you here to join?"  
He had a pretty good idea that they were here to see Shinji. That would explain why Shinji kept glancing toward the front door. Also, Shinji seemed to have a track record of having only females enter the gym looking for him or accompanying him.  
"Um, is Shinji here?" Sumi asked.  
Ippo smirked. His assumption was correct.  
He gestured toward the ring in the center of the gym, "He's busy sparring. However, you're welcome to go over and watch," "Thanks," both girls said politely.  
They walked over to where the ring was where the did see Shinji sparring against someone obviously larger than him. Little did they know that most of the guys in the gym at the time were staring at them for a good long moment before resuming their training. Since Shinji's back was to them, he hadn't spotted them yet. "Hey, Shinji!" Meito called out to him, hoping to surprise him.  
Shinji, hearing his name, turned his head to look. Unfortunately, he was struck hard in the side of the face where he fell to the canvas, disoriented and hurt.  
Shinji's opponent, a man named Juno, had a punch that almost rivaled Ippo's own punching power. The well-placed hit had struck Shinji right in the jaw where it rattled his brain in his skull, causing him to fall to the canvas for the third time, losing him the match based on a technical knockout.  
"Damn," Shinji said, feeling embarrassed to have lost, especially in front of Sumi and Meito. Also, it had been his fault that he got distracted so easily.  
"Good match," Juno said, helping Shinji back to his feet, "You landed some really good blows on me and took some good one as well,"  
"Thanks," Shinji bowed, "You were great. I'm glad I fought you,"  
Juno smirked. He couldn't believe Shinji was already up on his feet as if he was perfectly fine. It made him wonder if Shinji would ever lose if it weren't for the fact that getting knocked down meant a technical knockout. He had the funny feeling that Shinji could keep getting up and fighting if he had to.  
"I look for to seeing how well you do when you become pro," Juno commented, "I'll be sure to come cheer for you in your debut match,"  
"T-thanks," Shinji said nervously, "However, I haven't even become pro yet. I hafta pass my pro test first,"  
"You'll do fine," Juno waved a dismissive hand. "I-I hope so," Shinji said.  
Juno left the ring as Shinji walked over to where Meito and Sumi were standing. He climbed out and came to stand in front of them.  
"Heh, it seems you lost, huh?" Meito smirked.  
"Um, I was kinda hoping you guys didn't see that, but yeah," Shinji gave a sheepish smile, "They're really tough. He's probably one of the toughest opponents I've fought yet,"  
"Are you okay?" Sumi asked, concerned, "You took a really hard punch back there,"  
Shinji nodded, "I'm fine. I can get knocked down with a well placed punch, but I can easily get back up. It's not the pain that usually knocks me down but the impact that shocks my body that knocks me down,"  
Meito glanced around the gym, "So, this is where you train, huh?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, for over the past four months,"  
"How come there's no girls in here?" Sumi commented, "Oh wait, I see one,"  
"Where?" Meito asked.  
Sumi pointed over to where they saw a young girl around their age, her back towards them as she did the speed bag.  
"Oh, that's Emiko," Shinji said, "She's a friend of mine. That's one of my friends I'd like you guys to meet. My other friend, Oki, left already. He comes at around eleven and leaves at around one. You just missed him,"  
Shinji turned toward where Emiko was and called out her name.  
Emiko turned around and noticed Shinji and two girls standing right by him. Who are they, she wondered. Do they know Shinji? Does Shinji know them?  
Shinji motioned for Emiko to go on by where he was.  
She walked over to where she was, feeling a bit weird and her heart racing.  
"Emiko, I'd like to introduce you to Sumi and Meito," Shinji gestured.  
"Um, hello," Emiko said. The name Sumi immediately registered in her mind. She had heard that name before. Priss had mentioned that name once during Friday dinner. She remembered Priss had joked about Shinji and a girl named Sumi. Was this the girl?  
"This is Emiko," Shinji gestured, "We train here together,"  
"Hello," both girls said politely.  
Sumi regarded Emiko for a moment. She didn't recognize her. She also found it weird that she had never heard of Emiko's name mentioned by Shinji. Could she be his girlfriend? She was sure Shinji didn't have a girlfriend. Also, Shinji had mentioned that she was his friend when they were on campus before they parted.  
Sumi and Emiko regarded each other.  
They seemed to share the same thought.  
Who is she and what's her relationship with Shinji?

new stuff 10/3

Emiko was silent as she walked home. She hadn't said a word since she had met Sumi and Meito. Shortly having been introduced to them, she had excused herself to resume her training.  
"Um, Sumi seems like a nice person," Emiko commented, wondering how she could gently go about shifting the conversation around so she could get a few answers to the questionst we really wanted to ask.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. She's a classmate of mine,"  
"T-that's all?" she asked.  
"Yeah," he said, "Meito is her housemate. I know her through Sumi,"  
"Oh," she said, feeling this sense of relief, "Um, it's just that...um..."  
"What?"  
"I thought she was your girlfriend," she finally said after a long pause.  
Shinji blushed, "No! S-she's not my girlfriend,"  
He wondered if now was a good time to mention about that, about how he liked Sumi and would like her as a girlfriend. "So they were there just visiting?" she asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Sumi always knew that I trained in boxing. From outta the blue, she asked to see where I boxed,"  
"Oh,"  
Shinji paused for a moment, a bit embarrassed about what he was going to say. Saying who he liked was definitely something he would prefer not to say. However, if Emiko knew that he liked Sumi, then she might be able to help him out.  
"Do you think you can give me advice about something?" he started off.  
"With what?" she asked.  
"I like Sumi and was hoping she could be my girlfriend. Can you help me out?"  
Emiko was unable to say anything in response.  
She had just been stunned speechless.

To add insult to injury, Emiko ended up losing to Asuka for the very first time in a sparring session. Sure, she had been pre-occupied at the time which resulted in her opponent exploiting that. However, the result was that she had lost. There was no denying it.  
Asuka celebrated and hugged Ranma, caught up in the moment, him having been in the dojo at the time watching the sparring session between the two girls. When she realized what she had done, she blushed terribly red and quickly released her embrace. Shortly after, she headed out of the dojo, intent on telling Akane her win.  
Emiko looked down at the floor as she sat in the middle of the room.  
"You okay?" Ranma asked, a bit concerned. He was really surprised that she had lost. However, he knew that there must be something really heavy on her mind that had distracted so much as to lose to Asuka.  
"I'm fine," she lied through her teeth.  
"Lettme guess, it has something to do with Shinji," Ranma commented, knowing that now was not a time to be joking around.  
Emiko said nothing. Her silence seemed to be an well enough answer.  
"Why don't we talk about it?" he asked, "I can probably help out,"  
She shook her head, "Nah. I'm fine,"  
"All right," he said, "I dunno what's wrong, but for me to help, you need to tell me what's up. I'm sure Akane and Luna can help out as well if you go to them for help too,"  
It hurt. It hurt a lot but she didn't show it. However, she wanted to know more about who Sumi was.  
Emiko and Shinji were both in Shinji's room as he talked about Sumi.  
"She's my classmate," he said, answering he question, "I've known her since I started school last year. However, I didn't really start talking to her until only around four months ago," "D-do you guys talk a lot?" she asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, after classes. I even visited her twice over the summer,"  
"Y-you did?"  
"Yeah, when I went with Priss to Kyoto. She lives in Kyoto," he said, "Priss gave me a ride there so I was able to visit her and some friends,"  
Emiko said nothing. She had remembered Shinji mentioned he went to visit some friends. However, she had assumed it was to visit male friends much like Oki or such. He hadn't thought Sumi would be one of them. "Y-you like her?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
Emiko felt really sad hearing that. It tore at her. However, what was she to do? The relationship book said that there was a chance at being hurt liking someone when there was the possibility that that someone already liked another person.  
"Hey, I'd like to ask her out," he said, figuring her advice would be very useful, "Do you think there's as special way I should go about it?"  
Emiko said nothing for a long while. What should she say?

Emiko had trouble sleeping that night.  
It was around one in the morning. She had dodged the question about how Shinji should ask Sumi out on a date. However, it still bothered her that he had asked her that. It meant Shinji liked Sumi enough to want to ask her out on a date. That put things in perspective for Emiko since Shinji had never asked her out on a date before.  
It made her wonder what she should do. Shinji was asking for her help. She would not hesitate to help him with anything if he asked her. However, she had never anticipated it would be something like helping him go on a date with another girl. She wanted to help him out for the sake of helping him out, but if she did, then that meant he and Sumi would be soon going out with one another, something Emiko didn't want.  
Should she help him? It had made her happy that he was happy. That was evident after she cut his hair and he was happy at how great a job she did. However, with something like this, he would be happy if he and Sumi go together, but then she would be unhappy.  
I should decide, Emiko thought. Am I the type of person that would sabotage Shinji's happiness so I won't get hurt? Would I rather Shinji be happy but at the expense that I'll be unhappy? Or would I rather be happy at the expense of Shinji being unhappy?  
It was basically one or the others and she had to decide.  
However, she couldn't seem to think straight.  
Emiko felt sad and refreshed the next morning. It was an odd combination of emotions but that was definitely what she felt. Perhaps it was because she had decided on a course of action that night.  
"I was thinking last night," Emiko gave a forced smile, "I think I know of a good way to help you and Sumi get together,"  
"So you can help me?" Shinji smiled, happy.  
Emiko smiled. She had decided the right choice, that Shinji being happy would make her happy, even if it meant giving him up. Besides, it wasn't as if she had a claim on him anyway. There were just friends, right? They were still friends and that was much better than nothing at all.  
"What do you think I should do?" he asked, "You think there's a special way I should ask her out on a date?"  
Emiko smiled. She put herself in Sumi's shoes and what would Shinji would most likely need to do to get her to accept a date with him if he asked her out instead.  
"Yeah. Just act yourself when to ask her. That's reason enough to go out with you,"

"I've decided to give up Shinji," Emiko said to Akane.  
"Huh?" she asked, surprised at the sudden comment. She had been in the kitchen drinking some juice when Emiko entered and said that.  
Emiko smirked, "I know you and Luna and Ranma know about my liking Shinji. I overheard you talking to Luna about me in the kitchen not too long ago. You two had been commented about when I would come to the two of you for advice,"  
"We didn't meant to talk behind your back," Akane defended herself, "We weren't saying anything bad. We were merely curious if you were ever going to talk to us about that,"  
"I understand," she said, "That's why I'm telling you this,"  
"Why this all of a sudden?" Akane asked, "This seems very odd. Did something happen between the two of you?"  
Emiko said softly, "It seems Shinji likes someone else, a girl named Sumi,"  
Akane became silent.  
This was news to her.  
She noticed how Emiko looked a bit sad.  
I'm going to help Emiko out in any way that I can, Akane thought right on the spot. I don't know what Shinji's thinking, but him not realizing he has a good thing is just plain idiotic on his part.  
"I'm pretty sure I know what you're thinking," Emiko gave a small smile, "And thanks. I appreciate you wanting to help me out, but I'll deal with this myself,"  
Akane was silent.  
"It's my choice," Emiko said softly.  
She left the room, not wanting to see Akane see her cry.

"Hey, Emiko," Oki greeted Emiko as she was doing the punching bag and trying to keep her mind pre-occupied.  
"Hey, Oki," she continued doing the speed bag as she looked over and gave a slight smile.  
A day had passed since Shinji had revealed to Emiko the girl he liked. She and Shinji were now at Makunouchi Gym training. Oki, whom usually trained downstairs and sparred against veteran boxers, only came upstairs for a short time to spar against Shinji. He usually came up a bit early, to watch Shinji spar the opponent before him to see how fast his growth was fighting against different opponents.  
He was always polite enough to greet her whenever he saw her. It added to Oki's charm, something Oki was probably completely unaware of. "Um, you look upset," Oki commented, hitting at the punching bag a few times, his speed matching Emiko's.  
Although Oki was basically Shinji's good friend, she had become a good friend of Emiko's by association. They usually chatted for a short time though, Oki more shy talking to girls than Shinji. However, much like Shinji, he didn't feel all that shy and awkward talking to a girl he knew like Emiko.  
Emiko was surprised Oki noticed it, "What, does it look like I'm upset?"  
Oki shrugged, "Just a lil bit,"  
"I lost to Asuka in a sparring match," she lied, "That's what got me upset,"  
Oki knew some things about Emiko, like how she usually sparred against Asuka, a girl Oki had met only a few times through the chance encounters when she came around the dojo when he was there. He also knew about how she was being privately trained by Shinji and was there at the gym to train at getting better at fighting.  
He didn't know stuff like what her favorite color was or what her favorite movie was or what kind of music she preferred to listen to or whatnot. Those were bits of information that Shinji seemed to know.  
"You lost to Asuka, huh?" Oki smirked, "It must be really upsetting,"  
"That's what got me upset these past few days," she commented. Actually, there was a bit of truth to those words. It was upsetting that she had finally lost to Asuka.  
Oki shrugged, "I know exactly how you feel,"  
Emiko regarded him for a moment, "You do?"  
He nodded, "Yeah. You keep on thinking about it, about whatcha did wrong and how you wish you could move back time a bit and redo the match,"  
Emiko couldn't help but feel that Oki did know exactly how she felt.  
"Don't worry," he smiled, "It won't bother you after a week or so. For instance, it really bothered me when I lost to Shinji for the first time not too long ago. After a week or so, it didn't bother me anymore,"  
"I hope so," she said, referring to the loss as well as her giving up Shinji.  
Oki chuckled, "Besides, losing is a good motivation to make yourself become a better fighter, so that that would not happen again,"  
"That's true," she commented, suddenly realizing that she had been training a bit harder than usual. However, where it was to become a better fighter so she could defeat Asuka and get her dignity back or perhaps just to keep her mind occupied, she had no idea.  
Oki looked over to where the ring was and noticed that Shinji had defeated his opponent. Oki's turn to spar against him was up.  
"Ah, looks like it's my turn," Oki smirked, "Even though we're basically considered even nowadays, him beating me about as frequently as I beat him, I'm gonna try and tip the scale toward me like how it used to be back when Shinji first started training here,"  
"And how do you expect to do that?" she smirked, knowing that it was easier said than done.  
"I'm gonna go in with a certain mentality," Oki grinned, "I'm gonna try and punch him a lot and hope he falls,"  
Emiko giggled.  
Oki chuckled.  
For a short moment, Emiko forgot that she was supposed to be upset.

new stuff 10/4

Several days passed since Shinji had revealed to Emiko the girl he liked.  
During those couple of days, he practiced in front of a mirror how he would go about to asking Sumi out. He usually practiced in front of the mirror in his room. Sometimes, he practiced saying the words while taking a shower in the bathroom.  
"Hey, Sumi. I was wondering if you'd be interested in going out to get some dinner?" Shinji practiced, repeating to himself.  
He usually snorted in frustration. He didn't even know if that was the right way to ask a girl out on a date. "Hey, Sumi. You up to grabbing something to eat one night?" he tried out. That was no good either. The first one sounded better and more polite.  
Shinji decided he had been taking a shower for too long and got out. He better head on out to class anyway.  
"I'll try and ask her out today, after class,"

Shinji nervously waited for the first class of the day to end.  
He hadn't paid attention at all to what he was supposed to be learning. All he remembered was that the professor was teaching something that required the use of letters and numbers in several formulas.  
When the professor dismissed the class, Shinji nervously approached Sumi. Even before he reached her, his hands had became clammy and his heartbeat started racing.  
He took several deep breaths as he approached her, willing himself to become more relaxed. For some odd reason, he was able to actually control his nervousness fairly well by simply taking a few deep breaths. He hadn't been able to do that a couple of months before.  
Sumi looked up as she was putting her books away in her backpack. "You busy?" he asked.  
"Of course not," she smiled.  
She followed Shinji as they headed out of the classroom.  
"So, what's up?" she asked.  
"Um, I-I was wondering if you're busy this Saturday," he began, already forgetting the lines he had practiced while taking a shower that morning. The thought of asking Sumi to Friday dinner with him and the others sounded pretty inviting but he figured it was better to have her meet his friends one at a time over the course of time instead of meeting them all at once and getting confused with names and who was who.  
Sumi gave a smile, "Actually, um, I was about to ask you the same thing as well,"  
"Oh?"  
"Um, w-well, Meito and I, we're going to be at the campus auditorium this Friday and Saturday night and, um, was wondering if you'd like to come," she said quickly, almost saying her practiced words perfectly.  
"The auditorium? Why're the two of you going there?" he asked, scratching his head.  
Sumi gave him an odd look, "Don't tell me you don't look at any bulletin boards that are located all over campus,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile.  
"There's a blood drive this Friday night," she said, "Meito and I will be doing volunteer work there. Um, I was wondering if you'd like to help out, t-  
that is, if you're not busy,"  
"You do volunteer work?" Shinji was surprised, never having known this aspect about her before. He couldn't help but admire and respect her more than before, it that was possible.  
Sumi nodded, "Not too often. About one or twice a month. Sometimes more. For instance, over the summer, I helped run bingo games for this senior citizen complex every week,"  
"Wow, that's great," Shinji said.  
"What, you do volunteer work?" she asked.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, no, I don't. Sorry,"  
Sumi giggled, "Don't worry about it. It's not your fault. Not many people do volunteer work anyway nowadays so that's understandable. Meito didn't do volunteer work until the beginning of last semester. I managed to convince her to give it a try and she kinda liked it,"  
"What kind of volunteer work do you do?" he asked curiously.  
She shrugged, "A bunch of kinds of work. There's that bingo game I mentioned. Also, there's that blood drive I help out with. Two weeks ago, I did I helped with a finger painting class for disabled children,"  
"Wow, I never knew this," Shinji said, "I really admire whatcha do,"  
He wondered if helping saving worlds was considered volunteer work. He never got paid for helping Ranma and the others fight the Angels that attacked this world. Heck, he never got paid to pilot EVAs back in his own world. The same thing goes for trying to find and save the God-version of Ranma.  
"So, um, if you're not busy this Saturday night, would you be interested?" she asked.  
Shinji thought about it a moment. It didn't seem like a bad idea. However, he had no idea how one when about doing volunteer work.  
"Um, w-what would I hafta do?" he asked.  
Sumi smiled, happy that he was even considering doing something like that. Most people wouldn't even consider doing volunteer work and wouldn't even bother asking about it. Some people did ask, but that was merely for the sake of sounding interested. Shinji sounded truly interested.  
"It's not much work," she said, "All we'd be doing is sitting by a table right by the entrance and help people out with filling out some papers, if they ever have questions,"  
"Paperwork? What kind of paperwork?" he asked, "How would I be able to answer questions pertaining to such things I know nothing about?"  
Sumi smiled, "That's okay. They show you. It's a very straight-forward form for people to fill out before they donate blood. There's nothing special or tricky about filling it out. Besides, I'll be there to help out so if you have a question you can't answer, I'll probably be able to help,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Um, I guess that doesn't sound all that hard,"  
"So you'll do it?" she asked, her voice hopeful.  
"Sure,"

Saturday rolled around. Shinji met up with Sumi in front of her dorm building. It was somewhere around six in the evening, well after Shinji had finished teaching his afternoon classes and training Emiko, but a couple of hours before he was expected to meet up with Sumi and Meito.  
He took a few deep breaths as he paced back and forth in front of the building to calm himself down. He had been asked to come around then because he and Sumi and Meito could grab a quick bite to eat before heading down to the campus auditorium to help out with the blood drive.  
This was the first time he would be going out to get some food with a girl. Actually, with two girls. Although it was just a simple quick meal, it was still a form of dinner. Shinji thought about Emiko as he wondered the meal he and Sumi and Meito would be having together would be as easy-going. He remembered he found himself constantly self-conscious of what he was going to say during the time when he was with the two of them going to the amusement park.  
He felt a bit at ease though. Meito would be there. She made it easy for him to talk since she was outgoing and seemed to always say the right things and make it easy to keep a conversation going.  
Emiko is kinda like that, Shinji thought. At least Emiko is outgoing with me and easy to talk to.  
Shinji paused for a moment as he wondered how come he had been thinking more and more about Emiko lately. Could it be because he was wondering why Emiko seemed to be bothered about something? He would really like to find out what but she tended to avoid the subject. The funny thing is that Emiko hid her being bothered very well. However, Shinji knew her so well that he could tell something, whatever it was, made her bothered.  
He shrugged. If Emiko didn't want to tell him, then there was nothing he could do. He remembered reading that girls liked to talk about what bothered them to feel better while guys used to keep things to themselves and not talk about it. Perhaps Emiko preferred going about it in a guy-fashion way of thinking.  
"Shinji," he heard Meito's voice.  
Shinji looked up where he saw Meito hanging almost halfway out of a third story window.  
"Hey," he said.  
"We'll be down in a second. We're almost ready," Meito said, "You wanna come up? We live in dorm number '301', the one adjacent to the stairwell,"  
Shinji quickly shook his head, "N-no. I'll wait,"  
"Are you sure?" she asked.  
"I-It's okay," he said. He wasn't ready for that. He wasn't ready with going in to a dorm where girls lived. He was already nervous about going to get some food with two girls, let alone go in to their dorm. He needed to work his way up to doing something like that, even if it was just to wait inside for them to finish getting ready instead of out there.  
Things feel like they're moving too fast, Shinji thought as he waited.  
Sumi and Meito emerged from the building after a couple of minutes.  
"Sorry to make you wait," Sumi gave a small smile.  
"It's fine," he said, "I was early anyway,"  
"We ready to go get something to eat?" Meito skipped the greetings, "I'm starved and wanna eat right away,"  
"Um, sure," he said.  
A short distance away, Emiko was clad in dark clothes.  
She was perched near the rooftop of a nearby dorm building as she watched Shinji talking to Meito and Sumi. How she got up there, no one knew.  
Emiko recognized the two girls. The one on the left was Sumi. The one on the right was the friend that was with her, the housemate. She wished she was close enough to hear what they were saying.  
Emiko didn't want to give up on Shinji. Not yet.  
A couple days had passed since she had found out Shinji liked Sumi. She had initially wanted to back down, believing it was best not to complicate things. However, she wasn't one to give up. That wasn't her. If she was the type to give up, she would had quite training the moment she was defeated by Asuka. She would have stopped training at the gym when she felt extremely sore after the very first day of training there. However, she didn't do any of that because she wasn't a quitter.  
She didn't know if what she was doing was right. Should she be observing them and spying on them? No. She shouldn't. It was most likely considered wrong.  
Shinji and the two girls headed off.  
Emiko followed suit, remaining by the rooftops and the shadows. Although she hadn't done any form of stealth in a while, she was still very adept and being silent and unseen. What the heck was wrong with her? Didn't she give up the ways of a ninja several ways ago?  
True, but this was for a good cause.

new stuff 10/9

Emiko observed Shinji from the rooftop of the building across the street. Shinji was in a restaurant with Sumi and Meito. They were seated in a booth right by the window, Shinji in his own seat and Sumi and Meito in the adjacent one.  
She noticed that Shinji and the two girls seemed to be indulging in conversation. It seemed like the conversation was mostly between Meito and Shinji, Sumi talking about half as much as Meito.  
I wonder what they're talking about, Emiko thought. I should get closer to hear but then that would be really an invasion of privacy, as if what I'm doing now isn't bad enough.  
Emiko hopped off the rooftop and twisted in the air, landing firmly on the side alley located between the building she was standing on and its neighboring build.  
She landed silently, more silent than ever before, her extra training seemingly a lot more productive than she thought. She paused for a moment to wonder just how much better a ninja she could have gotten over time.  
"Oh well, it's not like I'll ever really use these skills anymore," she said to herself silently.  
She dashed out across the busy streets of MegaTokyo. As to how she was not seen crossing the street, no one knows. She ran up toward the side of the restaurant, aside from public view, and looked in through the window.  
I must be careful, she thought. This is Shinji. This isn't the same Shinji as back then. He can sense things like Ranma does. However, he can't sense things quite as well or pinpoint the exact location where he felt the feeling was coming from.  
She ducked down as Shinji turned his head toward the side and looked in her general direction.  
"What the heck?" Shinji said.  
"Something the matter?" Sumi asked.  
Shinji scratched his head, a bit confused, "I dunno. I-it feels like someone is watching us,"  
He felt this odd feeling that he couldn't really describe. It was as if his body was trying to tell him something he didn't quite understand. "W-watching us?" Sumi gave as arvous glance around, "Who? Why?"  
Shinji waved a dismissive hand, "It's that same feeling. Y'know what I mean? I don't think someone's watching us. It feels similar,"  
"Maybe it's the food you're eating," Meito smirked, gesturing toward Shinji's plate.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Perhaps,"  
All three of them laughed.  
Emiko looked back in through the window and saw Shinji and the two girls laughing. She couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy.  
She remembered Shinji making her laugh like that.

Shinji sat at a table located by the entrance to the campus auditorium. He was feeling very self-conscious of himself as he sat between Meito and Sumi. Laid out in front of him were several pamphlets and sheets of paper to be filled out by people wishing to donate blood.  
He rubbed at the inside of his elbow. He didn't like the thought of giving blood. He had his blood forcibly removed when he became a EVA pilot and hated every minute of it.  
"We're only going to be doing this for two hours?" he asked, "That's it?"  
Sumi nodded, "Uh huh. That's it. It's not long,"  
"You plan on giving blood afterwards?" Meito asked Sumi, "I am. I missed last semester's blood drive so I didn't get a chance to give blood,"  
Sumi nodded, "Yeah, I'm going to give blood too. How about you, Shinji? You plan on giving blood?"  
"Um, er," he gave a sheepish smile, "D-do I hafta?"  
"If you're too scared to, then there's no need," Meito grinned.  
"No, I'm not scared," Shinji said defensively.  
"Then why not give blood?" Sumi asked, "It can save a person's life,"  
Shinji sighed. How can one fight against logic like that?

From a short distance away, hidden in a bush and from view of suspecting eyes, Emiko watched as Shinji and the two girls emerged from the auditorium a couple hours later. He rubbed at the inside of his elbow, shocked that he had actually voluntarily given blood a short time ago. It wasn't that he was terrified of needles. He simply got queasy at the sight of seeing a needle in his arm and seeing so much blood coming from it at such a rapid rate.  
"Have you ever given blood before?" Sumi asked, figuring it was no.  
Shinji shook his head, "Not voluntarily, no," "So whatcha think?" Meito smiled, "It wasn't that hard, was it? Giving blood," He nodded, "You're right,"

Nothing happened after that.  
Shinji walked both girls home where he said his goodbyes and left. Although he believed tonight would had probably been a good night to ask Sumi out on a official date, he couldn't bring himself to ask her out, too nervous to do so. Meito had even presented him such an opportunity, excusing herself and heading in to the building so that Sumi and Shinji could be alone outside the building.  
However, Shinji didn't really mind. Sooner or later, he would muster the courage to ask her out.  
As he walked home, he sensed something among a few bushes that was located near the dorm building.  
He stopped and stood where he was, observing the bush.  
Emiko felt her heart skip a beat as she noticed Shinji looking directly toward her hiding spot. How could he know that she was there? She made no movements nor noise nor any indication that she was there.  
He stood there for several moments before he dismissed it and continued his way toward home.  
He needed to figure out what was going on. He was sensing things he had never sensed before.  
Emiko and Ranma was good at that, sensing things. Perhaps he could ask her.

"Have you seen Emiko?" Shinji asked Akane as she was having herself a quick late evening snack in the kitchen.  
Akane nodded, "Yeah. She just got home,"  
"Just got home? Where'd she go?" he asked, a bit surprised.  
"I dunno," Akane answered, "She left at around the same time you left. I thought she went with you,"  
Shinji shook his head, "No, she didn't,"  
"Well, she's upstairs," Akane said, "I passed her on my way down the stairs,"  
"Um, okay," he said, shrugging his shoulders, "Thanks,"  
Shinji left the kitchen and headed upstairs toward his room. He knocked and was allowed in. Inside, he saw Emiko lying down on her futon, supposedly reading a manga novel.  
"Y'busy?" he asked.  
Emiko looked nervously up from her book and toward Shinji.  
She then sat upright in her futon, "Um, not really? Why?"  
"There's something I'd like to ask you," he started off.  
Emiko felt herself suddenly becoming a bit more nervous than she already was. Did he want her to come clean about what she had done. Did he know?  
"Um, w-what is it?" she asked.  
"Well, there was this weird sensation I kept getting while I was out," he said, "I figured I'd ask you about it. It felt like someone was watching me or something. Do you ever get those?"  
Emiko was silent for several moments, very surprised at the level of Shinji's skill. He had gone from being able to only sense something while only meditating to being able to sense something while going about his day. "I don't really know what it was but that's what it felt like," he said, "I felt this weird feeling coming from a general direction, but that was it,"  
"Perhaps it was just your imagination," she suggested, not wanting him to know. He was learning so quickly that it would only be a matter of time before he would start realizing that it was his body's way of telling him of the surrounding area.  
"I guess you have a point," he said.  
"It's about time," Ranma smirked. A couple of weeks had passed since Shinji had asked Emiko about sensing something. He had asked Ranma the same kind of question.  
"About time what?" Shinji asked. The two of them had been sparring one night when he brought it up from out of the blue.  
"It's about time you start sensing things," Ranma commented, "It means you're right on track with your training,"  
"Huh?"  
"Your senses are starting to get more acute," Ranma commented, "The feeling you just described is the first indication that you're starting to develop a sense of your surroundings," besthinji looked confused.  
"Don't worry about it," Ranma said, "Just give it time. Right now, your body is developing faster than your mind. That's why you're not used to it. Your body has already started developing an unseen aura surrounding it. As time passes, the aura becomes more effective and you'll be able to pinpoint exactly where and what is within that surrounding aura,"  
Shinji was silent. He had an aura surrounding him?  
Ranma smirked, "Just continue on training. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Wait until you start figuring out ki-blasts and such,"

Shinji's pro test came before he knew it.  
Fortunately for him, it took place on a Saturday so he didn't have to worry about taking time off from school. Unfortunately for him, it also meant that Ranma and the others could come and watch, all of them not having much to do and easily able to get off of work if they did work on Saturdays.  
Shinji paced back and forth in the living room, a nervous wreck.  
It was early in the morning, a bit earlier than he cared to be awake. However, he was glad he had actually managed to get some sleep last night despite the knowledge of the upcoming pro test that he would have today.  
A doorbell didn't help to sooth his nerves. It made it all the more worse. The others are here, Shinji thought.  
He watched as Ranma, whom had been watching some Saturday morning anime, tell Lina to go answer the door.  
"You just lounge around in this house. Go make yourself useful and answer the door," Ranma said.  
Lina laughed but made no effort to get up from the couch to do as asked.  
"I'll go get it," Shinji said, heading to the front of the house.  
Answering the door, he was surprised to see all the adult females standing at the other side. He gave them quick greeting and asked them to come in.  
Once inside, everyone gathered around in the livingroom and proceeded to keep themselves occupied, helping themselves to the refreshments Akane had been thoughtful enough to bring out.  
"So, today is your big day," Priss gave Shinji a smile.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Hopefully, I'll do well,"  
"You'll do fine," Sylia said with a warm smile, "I'm confident you'll do better than anyone else,"  
"Thanks," he smiled.  
"How are we all getting there?" Luna asked curiously.  
"I rented a van," Akane answered, "We can all go together,"  
"I'll ride my motorcycle," Priss commented, "I prefer the open air,"  
Ranma said, "Say, that sounds like a good idea. I'll ride that bicycle I found. Hey, would ya like to race?"  
"No thanks," Priss gave a defeated look.  
"If you win, I'll give ya the underwear I'm wearing right now," he smiled.  
Akane punched Ranma, "Quit teasing Priss!"  
Priss opened her mouth to say something but ended up saying nothing. It looked as if she was about to argue against Akane but decided against it. Besides, there were children in the room. She was supposed to be a role model.  
"Anyway, changing the subject, is everyone here?" Akane asked.  
"Why dontcha ask for the ones not here to raise their hands so you'll know who isn't," Ranma smirked.  
Akane narrowed her eyes, tempted to smack Ranma upside the head a few times.  
"The only person that isn't here is Oki," Shinji said.  
Sumi would had been there but she had gone home to visit her parents for the weekend. Since they didn't have classes on Monday and Tuesday, it would be a four-day weekend. Otherwise, she would have chosen to stay in MegaTokyo.  
A few minutes after that comment, the doorbell rang, indicating Oki's arrival.  
Shinji answered the door.  
"I'm glad you could make it," Shinji said, making a fist and tapping Oki's fist, a buddy-gesture they started using only a couple of weeks ago. As to which of the two of them started it, no one knew.  
"Why would I wanna miss it?" Oki laughed, "We're taking it together,"  
The two of them laughed.  
"Follow me, I wanna introduce you to everyone,"

Oki and Shinji were in Kourakuen Hall, the place where they would be taking their pro test. Oddly enough, it was also the exact same place where Ippo had taken in his pro test decades earlier.  
The two of them were waiting to take the written exam portion of their pro test. It was a simple test that consisted of answering general questions pertaining to boxing, ranging from questions like the weight classes to dieting to equipment uses to boxing history.  
"It's too bad Ippo can't be here," Oki commented as he and Shinji sat next to each other in what looked like a classroom, each of them sitting at their own desk. "I know," Shinji answered, "However, he can't leave the gym. However, it's not like he needs to be here since he's confident the both of us will pass,"  
Oki nodded, "I guess you're right,"  
The classroom was gigantic and probably seated around a hundred people, all of the desks occupied by young up-and-coming boxers, all of them there for their pro test.  
There was a huge range of ages and sizes to people in the room. Some of them were as young as Oki and even smaller than him. Some of them were massive in stature, obvious Heavyweight boxers. All in all, this would probably be the only place where so many different weight classes of boxers would be gathered about.  
I wonder how many people would pass, Shinji thought. "Umezawa is here, y'know," Oki commented.  
"The freelance boxing reporter?" Shinji asked, "How do you know?"  
"I saw him on the way in," Oki answered, "I forgot to mention it. I think he's here to check out up-and-coming boxers like us,"  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess. He must be doing some kinda article. Actually, it's pretty good that he's here,"  
"How come?" Oki asked.  
"Well, the last time we saw him was when he came to visit the gym a few weeks back," Shinji said, "I'd like to say hi to him. Also, since he does freelance work as a reporter to a boxing magazine, I'm sure he's done his homework and knows about all the boxers to be watching,"  
"What about it?" Oki asked, confused.  
"We can ask him and find out from him all the good up-and-coming boxers to be on the lookout for," Shinji said, "That way, we can get a good idea of the kinda boxers we'll be fighting against in the future,"  
Oki smirked, "Y'know what's funny?"  
"What?"  
"I remember not too long ago, you were all worried that you weren't going to pass your pro test," Oki commented, "Now, it seems like you're already looking past that, as if you already know you're going to pass. You seem a lot more confident about yourself than back then,"  
Shinji blushed, "Um, I guess you have a point,"  
"It's good," Oki said, "That's how I'm looking at it. I'm already thinking about who my opponent will be in my debut match. How about you? Have you thought about it?"  
"Um, no really," Shinji said, "I have no idea what kinda person he'll be. Heck, I dunno what weight class I'm in to begin with,"  
Oki gave Shinji a very odd look, "Your weight class? How can you not know? Dontcha weight yourself?"  
Shinji shook his head, "No,"  
"You're probably around a hundred and sixty pounds so you'll probably be fighting as a Middleweight," Oki said, "I weighed myself right before I came over to your place. I weigh close to a hundred and sixteen pounds so I'll be a Bantamweight. I kinda wish I lost that extra pound or two. That way, I'd be fighting one weight class lighter, as a Super Flyweight,"  
"Why?" Shinji smirked, "You already excel at your current weight class. If you drop down a weight class, you'll do even better. What you should do is move up a couple of weight classes, perhaps gain around ten pounds and fight as a Featherweight at around a hundred and twenty-five pounds,"  
Oki shrugged, "I would, but I like being light on my feet. I'm small so any thing more than a hundred and fifteen pounds will just be considered excess weight my body'd hafta carry around,"  
Shinji shrugged, "So what? I'm probably a hundred and sixty pounds. I'll be fighting as a Middleweight. I'm probably supposed to be around a hundreow,"d thirty-five pounds or do and fighting as a Lightweight,"  
Oki shrugged, "Yeah, but you're taller so you can carry extra weight better than myself,"  
Shinji shrugged, "If you say so,"  
"Man, it's too bad we're in different weight classes," Oki commented, "It'd be kinda cool if we're in the same weight class and hafta fight against one another. Even though one of us will hafta lose, I'm sure the judges will be incredibly impressed at how great our match would be,"  
Shinji nodded, "I agree,"  
"Of course, I'd be embarrassed since I'll probably be on the losing end of the match since you're better than me," Oki said softly, "Man, I can't believe that you can grow so fast in such a short time. I can't even beat you anymore. You're a terrific fighter,"  
Shinji blushed, "Um, thanks. However, don't sell yourself short. I became the way I am because I train after I get home from school and later at night. After you're done training at the gym, you go help your parents out at their restaurant. I don't hafta do that which is why I've got the time to train so much. If it weren't for me being able to have the time I have to train so much, I would never be able to beat you,"  
"Still," Oki said after a pause, "Well, if I'm gonna lose to anyone, I'm glad it's you. It'd be really crushing if you sucked and I lost to you,"  
"Um, thanks, I think," Shinji gave a meek smile.  
At that moment, an elderly man entered the room, carrying in his hands a large stack of papers, the test that everyone would soon be taking.  
Everyone watched as the man went about handing out the tests.  
Before long, Shinji and Oki were given their own blank test paper.  
They looked at one another.  
"Good luck," both of them said to one another.

Shinji and Oki found themselves gathered in what looked like a locker room. It was a giant room where they could see lockers lining the walls to either side of them. The wide open area between the lockers was an ideal gathering area for all the up-and-coming boxers. By the back of the locker room was a giant scale that looked much more sophisticated and expensive than the traditional scale most people saw. It implemented the use of counterweights and pulleys, a far cry from the digital LED-displayed ones most people were used to.  
"How'd you do?" Oki asked Shinji.  
"I did fine," Shinji answered, "The written test was actually easier than I thought,"  
"Same here," Oki agree.  
"What number didja get?" Shinji asked, "I got fifty-five," "I got sixty," Oki answered, "That means our number for the weigh-in won't be called for a while. They're only up to number ten or so,"  
The two of them watched as the people in the room were removing their clothes, stripping down to nothing but their underwear. Since weight classes were very important, it was best to not be weighed-down by things like clothes which could result in you being one weight class higher than you were supposed to. Everyone wanted to be in the lightest weight class that their bodies could allow. This was because the heavier the weight class, the more powerful and stronger the fighters and the harder the opponents.  
Shinji watched as Oki took off his clothes, placing them in a nice neat pile off by one of the benches by the front of the locker room.  
Not that he was homosexual or anything, Shinji couldn't help but admire how well-defined a body Oki had. Although only sixteen, Oki's body was more developed and well-defined like that of a bodybuilder, minus the bulky muscles. Oki's body had the exact same cuts and striations as a professional building, his low body-fat giving him that look, but the lack of massively bulky muscles allowed for Oki to be so fast and agile. Oki had the look of someone incredibly strong without the need for the massive muscles to prove it.  
Oki flexed a few times, admiring his body as he looked at the full-length mirror that was just off to the side.  
"Man, I can't believe this is my body," Oki commented, flexing his arm to bring out the definitions of his shoulders, biceps, triceps, and forearms. Even though everyone in the locker room were in better shape than the average person, several people couldn't help but notice just how well-defined the young man was.  
"Dude, if he's Bantamweight then I feel sorry for ya," one guy commented toward a friend, "You're gonna hafta fight that guy,"  
"Thanks, that's really reassuring," the friend said sarcastically.  
There was a sense of tension within the locker room. This was expected since it was filled with very athletic and competitive people, all of them assessing one another. Shinji continued to glance around, wondering who would be in his weight class. So far, there looked to be around twenty or so people that weighed around a hundred and sixty pounds, give or take five pounds. There were around ten people that looked to weigh around Oki's weight. Before he realized it, everyone but him had removed their clothes and had began to form a single-file line in front of the giant scale.  
"Whatcha waiting for? Time to take off your clothes," Oki said, curious as to just how well built Shinji was. "Okay," he said. Shinji grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up and over his head, taking it off. Since he was the last person to be taking off his clothes, everyone else had bothered to observe him.  
The first glimpse they saw was a vest that the young man had under his shirt.  
"What the hell's that?" Oki asked, gesturing toward the vest.  
Shinji looked down. "What the hell is this?" Shinji asked himself.  
It took a good minute before he remembered.  
"Oh my god! This is my weighted vest!" Shinji laughed, slapping a hand against his forehead.  
"Huh?" Oki gave an odd look.  
"This is my weighted vest," Shinji answered, "Five months ago, I started weighing a hundred pound weighted vest,"  
"What?" Oki's eyes widened, "Y-you mean you've been wearing this for five months? Non-stop?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Not non-stop though. I only take it off when I'm taking a shower or so. However, I got so used to taking it on and off like it was an actual shirt that I long forgot about it,"  
Oki almost fell to the floor from the shock, "F-five months? A hundred pound vest?"  
Shinji scratched his head, "Um, actually, if I recall correctly, Ranma said that the vest weighed a hundred pounds when I first started. However, he said he secretly adds weight to the vest so I dunno how much it weighs,"  
Oki walked over and touched the vest. A second later, he tapped it, finding himself hitting solid steel.  
"Y-you've been wearing this when you spar?" Oki asked.  
Shinji nodded.  
"How's that possible? This is made of solid steel. I'm sure I would've felt my gloves hitting against a steel plate or something when fighting against you," Oki commented. Shinji nodded, "Yes, but there're no plates in the front of the vest so I can feel the punches to my chest and stomach and such. Most of the plates are centered around the back of the vest,"  
Oki was silent. He couldn't believe that his good friend, Shinji, had been wearing a vest all this time and he hadn't noticed. Shinji's movements and the momentum the extra weight should had made it very noticeable that he was wearing a weighted vest, especially when Shinji tried going one way while the vest went another way.  
"Take off the vest," Oki told Shinji, "I've got to see what your body looks like under that," Shinji smirked. Oki blushed when he realized his poor choice of words. However, he didn't bother to correct himself.  
Shinji removed the vest.  
"What the fuck?"  
"Holy shit,"  
"No fucking way,"  
Those were some of the comments people in the locker room said when Shinji removed his shirt. Shinji possessed perhaps the greatest muscle definition that humanly possible. Everyone standing behind Shinji noticed a massive back, the muscles of his lower back giving off a 'Christmas Tree'-look that only highly professional bodybuilders possess. The muscles of his forearms looked like steel cables, his lats and slim waist giving him a V-taper look. His trapezius chest wasn't gigantic but possessed a deeply-chiseled look. His washboard stomach was very well-defined, the muscles of that obliques that traveled up from the sides of the abdominal area and toward the armpit area very noticeable. His arms looked incredibly powerful and strong but didn't possess the overly-muscular look that usually resulted from such strength.  
It didn't take a genius for anyone in the locker room to realize that Shinji possessed the most well-defined body anyone had ever seen.  
"Damn, I didn't realize you had such a body," Oki said, obvious admiration in his voice. He wasn't one bit embarrassed that people might have the wrong impression of his sexuality. He was too shocked to care about what people though.  
Shinji gave a sheepish smile, "Um, thanks,"  
He turned toward the mirror Oki had been looking in and checked himself out. This would be the first time he checked himself out since he first put the vest on.  
"What the?" Shinji's eyes widened in utter shock.  
It looked like his head had been transplanted on a shorter version of Ranma's body. However, when Shinji voluntarily moved his arm and saw his reflection moving in the same motion, he immediately realized that he was looking at himself.  
"Damn," Shinji said, pressing a finger against one of his pectorals and noticing how hard and tight it felt. His chest was rock-solid, much like the rest of his body. Oki pointed toward the vest lying by Shinji's feet, "Is that some form of training, wearing that vest?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Ranma made me wear it. This is the first time I took for anything besides taking a bath or shower,"  
Oki walked over to the vest and tried to pick it up. To his surprise, he couldn't lift it. It didn't even budge.  
"What the hell?" Oki struggled to lift it. He gave it a hard jerk and was able to lift only the top portion of the vest up. The vest never completely left the floor, "How damn heavy is this thing? It must weigh a ton,"  
Shinji wondered why Oki was having so much trouble lifting the vest. He knew Oki was a strong person. The vest was rather light and a person as strong as Oki, even if he was rather light, should have no problem lifting that weight.  
"Ranma says he only adds a little bit of weight to it over time," Shinji commented, "It probably only weighs around a hundred and fifty pounds. At least that's what it feels like,"  
"This isn't a hundred and fifty pounds," Oki said, "It's at least double that,"  
Shinji laughed, "C'mon, we know it's not that heavy. Quit pulling my leg,"  
Oki became silent. Did Shinji really not know how heavy the vest was? Shinji was most likely the one pulling Oki's leg, pretending not to know how heavy that vest was.  
Oki turned toward a random person, a young man that was taller and larger than Shinji. He looked to weigh close to two hundred pounds of pure muscle. He wasn't quite as well-defined though but there was a sense of immense strength coming from the man.  
"How much can you bench?" Oki asked "Four fifty," the man said proudly, "Why?"  
Oki gestured toward the vest, "Can you try and lift that?"  
The man looked at the vest. After a moment, he shrugged and said, "Okay, but what for?"  
"I'm just curious about how heavy that vest is," Oki answered, "Perhaps you can lift it and tell,"  
"Okay," the man said.  
He walked over to the vest and bent over and tried to pick it up with one hand. To his surprise, he was unable to lift it on the first try, the vest significantly heavier than when he first expected.  
"What the fuck?" the man commented.  
He took a deep breath and tried to lift it up once again, this time using both arm. He found himself having a lot of trouble and was barely able to lift it. However, unlike Oki, the man managed to lift the vest completely off the floor, but only by a few inches.  
The man put the vest back down, breathing heavily, a bit spent from such an exertion, "What the hell's in this thing? It weighs a ton,"  
Shinji laughed, "A ton? You're kidding,"  
The man shrugged, "Not a ton in a literal sense. However, it feels like it weighs a ton,"  
Shinji walked over to the vest and picked it back up. It didn't even feel heavy to him. He held it with one hand and began curling it like it was a dumbbell.  
"Y'see? This isn't that heavy. If it's heavy, then I won't be able to curl it like this," Shinji commented, continuing to curl it.  
Oki and several people did a double-take.  
Shinji placed the vest back down. As he did, he recalled the comment Ranma had made, to do around forty jumping-jacks. However, he chose not to do so since it would be supremely embarrassing. He would do that when there weren't so many people around watching him.  
"Tellme I didn't just see that," the man commented, "I could barely lift that and you just curled it like it was nothing. Oh, I get it. This must be some kinda hidden video show, right? I'm on television,"  
"Huh?" Shinji asked.  
The man noticed the sincerely confused look on Shinji's face and realize that no actor could act that confused. The man turned toward two of his friends, "Guys, why dontcha both try and lift that thing?"  
Curious as to if the vest really was that heavy, the friends walked forward and tried to lift the vest together, both of them needing to worry about burdening half the weight of the vest. They were both surprised when he found themselves struggling to lift the vest up. They managed to lift it, but they had trouble nonetheless.  
"How heavy is this thing?" the both asked.

"A hundred and ninety pounds. Cruiserweight division," one of the boxing commission officials said as he read the weight on the scale.  
"A hundred and ninety pounds. Cruiserweight division," the man standing next to him acknowledged, writing the information down on a piece of paper on the clipboard he had in his hands.  
"What the?" the first man said, taking a glance at Shinji and then at the scale again, "That ain't right. You look to weigh around a one sixty. You definitely don't weigh one ninety," The second man looked up from the clipboard and noticed Shinji. He definitely had to acknowledge such a comment, "He doesn't look one ninety. Is the scale wrong?"  
"Hop off the scale," the man said.  
Shinji did as he was told. He glanced over to where Oki was and noticed the young man shrug his shoulders.  
The man hopped on the scale and checked the weight. It read one eighty, the proper weight of the man. The second man hopped on. The weight of the scale displayed two hundred pounds, the proper weight for that man as well.  
"Well, it got our weights correct," the first man said, "I guess the scale isn't broken,  
The two of them looked a Shinji oddly.  
"Hop back on," the man said.  
Shinji hopped back on the scale. The scale red one ninety, the exact same weight as it displayed the first time he was one.  
The man looked at the weight the scale displayed.  
"Hm, I guess you're one ninety, a Cruiserweight,"

"That's Shinji?" several of the adult females asked.  
"That don't look like Shinji," Linna commented.  
Ranma smirked as he sat in his seat. He was sitting in one of the seats of in a giant auditorium-like room that surrounded a ring in the middle. They had been hanging around in the auditorium for close to an hour before Luna spotted Shinji and pointed him out. Shinji had emerged from the two double doors and was with Oki. The two of them were among a large group of people as they walked in single-file and made their way to the line of chairs right by the base of the right.  
Shinji looked different, smaller than what any of them were used to seeing. This was because he had finally abandoned the weighted vest. Since the weighted vest added a bit of size to him and made him look smooth in the chest area, when he removed it, his musculature was much more evident through the t-shirt he was currently wearing. His chest could be seen pressing against the fabric of his shirt and the groove between both pectorals were very evident. His trapezius muscles located between his neck and shoulders as well as his shoulders were also very evident.  
"Shinji looks smaller than what I last remember," Linna commented, wondering what was going on.  
Ranma, Luna, and Akane looked at one another and smiled.  
"That's probably because he finally removed the damn weighted vest of his," Priss commented.  
"Yeah," Linna agreed.  
Ranma, Luna, and Akane looked surprised. They didn't realize that the two of them knew.  
"How did you two know?" Akane asked curiously.  
"Shinji rode on my bike with me when we went to Kyoto twice," Priss said, "I felt the vest through his clothes. I found out about it the first time we went to Kyoto. However, I didn't bother to mention it since I know of some of Ranma's weird training methods. I could've been some secret training Shinji wasn't supposed to even know about for all I knew and I didn't want to spoil it,"  
"Oh," Ranma said, "What about you, Linna? How did you know?"  
Lina said, "I found out when I was showing him some dancing lessons a while back. He was also wearing it for the dance competition. I chose to not say anything much like what Priss was thinking. I thought it was some crazy training you devised for Shinji and Shinji didn't even know about it,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Nah. It's not some secret training I had him do. I was merely surprised that you knew about it because Shinji forgot about that vest months ago. He moves and acts in the exact same manner as if he wasn't wearing one,"  
"I wouldn'tve been able to tell by looking at him," Priss shrugged, "However, when I felt the vest under his shirt, I found out. I'm pretty sure that's the same for Linna here,"  
"Yep," Linna agreed.  
"Shinji wears a weighted vest? For how long has he been wearing one?" Emiko asked, shock in her voice. She couldn't believe she didn't know something like that about him. She hung out with him all the time. Something like that she figured she would had known right away.  
As if adding insult to injury, Ranma's answer made it all the more shocking.  
"He's been wearing it for around five months," he said, "He basically wears it non-stop. I only asked that he take it off when he takes a bath or shower and that's it. He doesn't even take it off when he goes to sleep,"  
Emiko became silent. How could she not know something some important as him wearing a weighted vest?  
After a moment, her eyes widened, "Oh my god! It makes sense now!"  
"What makes sense?" Akane asked.  
"On why Shinji was so clumsy around five months ago," Emiko commented, "It was because he was unused to the vest. However, over time, he got used to it,"  
"Bingo," Ranma smirked.

Shinji, clad in protective gear, nervously entered the ring after his number was called.  
"Be careful, Shinji," he heard Ranma's voice, "Remember, you just recently removed your vest after wearing it for five months straight so you're unused to your own body's strength. You don't have much control over your newly unburdened body so you'll need to be careful not to punch too hard. You might accidentally kill your opponent,"  
Shinji looked over to where Ranma was.  
How does one replay to something like that? He dismissed the question at hand and looked at his opponent, a man significantly larger and taller than him. The man stood a good head taller and looked to weigh around fifty pounds more, even though they were considered to be both in the same weight class, Cruiserweight.  
The man smirked as he looked at Shinji.  
Shinji looked nervous. Unlike regular sparring matches, this one was different and he was being observed. If he didn't do well, then he wouldn't become a pro boxer.  
The bell rang, signaling the start of the round.  
Unfortunately, Shinji was unable to react simple due to nervousness and the fact that he was being watched by so many people.  
The Cruiserweight, the man that was Shinji's opponent, dashed forward and landed a devastating blow right on Shinji's chin before the young man was able to raise his hands and react.  
The audience cringed as they heard the loud impact of the Cruiserweight's glove against Shinji's chin, his head snapping back so that he ended up looking toward the high ceiling. To everyone's surprise, Shinji only staggered back slightly, the actually impact causing him to stagger as if he had been shoved, not punched.  
Shinji righted himself and brought his gaze forward and on to his opponent. The Cruiserweight had a shocked look on his face, surprised that someone could still be standing after being hit so hard.  
"Okay, now it's my turn," Shinji said softly to himself, his gloved fists clenching, "Let's see how well my body works,"  
Shinji tried to dash forward, tripping over his own feet and tumbled on the ring canvas.  
A ring signaled the end of the match, the referee standing by the end of the ring wanting it so. He believed that Shinji was in danger of being seriously hurt if he received another punch like that first one. He was there to watch over the fighters' welfare and not care about whether they become a pro boxer or not.  
Shinji looked over toward where the referee was and noticed him signaling to the judges that the fight was stopped.  
It didn't take him long to realize what had just happened. The punch looked like it had caused a delayed concussion. When he had tried stepping forward, him tripping over his own feet due to lack of control over his own body looked like the punch had finally taken effect.  
The match was seized based on Shinji's supposed welfare, that he would get seriously hurt if he continued on.  
Shinji failed his pro test.

"I tripped," Shinji pleaded toward the referee.  
"My decision is final," the referee told him, "I'm here to watch over the welfare of the fighters, not be biased toward who wins or not,"  
"The punch didn't effect me!" Shinji found his anger rising, "I tripped over my own feet!"  
The referee said, "My decision is final,"  
"Fuck!" Shinji snapped, not caring how vulgar he sounded. He could think of several other words that helped put his frustrations in to perspective.

"W-what happened?" Oki had this shocked look on his face.  
He had watched the match very intently and was shocked when he saw the match's conclusion and the referee indication Shinji's opponent's win.  
Shinji sat down in the empty seat next to Oki.  
"My feet," Shinji said, "I dunno but I had trouble controlling my legs. I think I was simply paralyzed with nervousness so I was unable to react when I saw my opponent dashing in and punching at me. However, when I tried to move, my legs felt like they didn't want to move,"  
"Could it be because you were used to the weighted vest," Oki commented.  
"I think so,"

Oki's victory felt sad.  
He was supposed to pass his pro test alongside his best friend Shinji. They were supposed to turn pro together.  
Oki glanced over his opponent as the young man lay unconscious on the ring canvas. The match had lasted only seven seconds, Oki hitting his opponent five times before the man finally fell and was unable to get back up.  
He sighed. This wasn't supposed to happen. He and Shinji were supposed to pass together.  
Sadly, Oki left the ring.

Ranma approached Shinji and Oki. Although one staff member told him that he wasn't allowed to talk to the up-and-coming boxers during the pro test, he ignored them and walked on past. "Congrats on your win," Ranma said to Oki, "You did really well,"  
"Thank you," Oki said politely, "That means a lot,"  
"Unfortunately, I can't quite say the same for Shinji," Ranma smirked.  
Shinji said nothing.  
"Did you do those jumping jacks I told you to do after you took your vest off?" Ranma asked. Shinji said, "Oh yeah, I forgot about doing them. However, what's that gotta do with my failing my pro test?"  
"You were supposed to do them before you were expected to fight," Ranma said, "You're unused to your unburdened body. Doing them would had help make your brain more used to using the body,"  
Shinji became silent. So this was all his fault, all because he was too embarrassed to do jumpin-jacks and eventually forgot to do them? He had followed and done Ranma's instructions steadfastly all those many months and the one time he forgot to do them, it resulted in his failure of his pro test.  
Was Ranma's advice always that important?  
As they spoke, a middle-age man approached the two of them.  
"Umezawa-san," Shinji greeted the man, bowing politely, "How are you doing?"  
Umezawa smiled, "I'm doing fine,"  
Shinji went about introducing Umezawa and Ranma to one another.  
"It's nice to meetcha," both men greeted one another.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "I guess you saw what happened,"  
Umezawa nodded, "Unfortunately, yes. Not a good way of starting your journey to the pros,"  
Shinji looked down toward the floor.  
"Don't worry, Shinji," Umezawa smiled, "I can help you out,"  
"Y-you can?" Shinji's eyes widened, "How?"  
"When I found out what happened, I tried talking to the judges," he said, "Unfortunately, they stand firm on their decision. However, it seems like they need someone like Ippo here breathing down their necks about their decision to make them think twice. I called Ippo and he is on his way here,"  
"R-really? He is?" Shinji felt a great sense of relief.  
Umezawa nodded, "Yes,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Man, it surprising that you mentioned that. We made a similar phone call to Ippo as well asking for his help. Priss left on her motorcycle to go pick him up. Since we're pretty far away, only she could get to his gym and back here in a short time,"  
Shinji smiled. Thank goodness for friends.

"Get a look at what that guy's doing,"  
"Why's he doing jumpin-jacks? That's old-school,"  
"Why's he even bothering? He lost already,"  
Those were some of the comments made about Shinji as he went about doing jumping jacks in the corner of the auditorium. There was a chance he had a second chance at becoming a pro. He needed to get ready, just in case.  
It already nearing the end of the pro test and Ippo wasn't there. He was very lucky he had such good friend. Priss had been there and she had left over an hour ago to pick up Ippo, having called him earlier about Shinji's dilemma. Ippo had agreed to come and talk to the judges personally.  
He looked around, wondering who he would have to fight if he was given the chance. He noticed that there were only a select few people that were around his weight class. However, they had already fought and might not be allowed to take part in a second fight for their pro test. It wasn't as if they needed to help Shinji out anyway if they didn't want to. Not helping one guy become pro meant one less opponent to have to worry about for one's weight class.  
Ippo entered the auditorium at just as the judges were about to pack up and call it a conclusion to the pro tests. Priss wasn't with Ippo, having gone off to be with Ranma and the others and hide among the group so she wouldn't have to waste her time giving autographs.  
Ippo had a stressed out look on his face, Priss having ridden him there on her bike with blazing speed. Although he hated the ride and was scared for his life all the way to Kourakuen Hall where the pro tests were being held, he had forced himself to endure it for Shinji's sake.  
There were very few people in there but the few that were immediately recognized Ippo, a legend in the world of boxing. The three judges had a shocked look on their face as Ippo approached them.  
"Ippo-sama, w-what brings you here?" one judge said.  
"I came to find out what's going on with one of my boxers," Ippo said, "His name is Shinji Ikari,"  
The man looked at a sheet of paper and scanned through the list of names.  
"Oh, that guy," the man said, "He lomuchis match due to a forfeit on the referee. The referee was looking out for his welfare and stopped the match,"  
Ippo shook his head, "That shouldn'tve happened. You don't hafta worry about Shinji. He's very tough and whatever had made the referee stop the match, it wasn't enough to merit it being stopped,"  
"But-"  
"I sparred against him," Ippo said, "And I didn't have to worry about having the match resulting in Shinji being hurt,"  
"Um, what do you suggest then?" one of the three judges asked.  
"Let him fight,"

Shinji and Ippo circled one another.  
The entire auditorium was silent, intent of seeing Ippo fight. All the people lucky enough to have stayed behind after they had had their match had been glad they did so. Why me, Shinji thought. Of all people, why do I hafta fight Ippo? I know why, it's because there are no more remaining people in my weight class. God forbid I get it easy and hafta fight someone lighter and weaker than me. It had been the only course of action that could be taken, for Shinji to fight someone of equal or higher weight class. Besides, Ippo seemed eager at the chance to fighting him.  
"You look different," Ippo commented, regarding Shinji intently, "You look smaller than how I remember you," It wasn't as if Ippo kept tabs on how Shinji looked. However, there were noticeable differences between the Shinji he saw yesterday and the Shinji he was currently looking at.  
He noticed the general flatness of Shinji's front was replaced by a deep chest as his pectorals pressed against the fabric of his shirt.  
"I look different because I took off my vest," Shinji smirked.  
"Vest? What vest?" Ippo asked, confused. "I've been wearing a weighted vest since I started training at your gym," Shinji replied, "Today is the first day since I've taken it off,"  
"What? You've been wearing a weighted vest for five months?" Ippo's eyes widened.  
Shinji nodded.  
Ippo thought for a moment before saying, "Wait, now that I think about it, it makes sense. You were all clumsy and such when you started training there,"  
"Yeah, I got used to it over time," Shinji nodded.  
"Man, I can't believe I never noticed," Ippo said, "And I'm used to noticing things too. I guess you carry the vest so well that I didn't notice it. How much does the vest weigh? Twenty? Thirty?"  
"No," Shinji shook his head.  
"More? Forty? Fifty? Don't tell me it's sixty!" Ippo gasped.  
Shinji continued to shake his head.  
"Seventy? Eighty? How much?" Ippo found himself dying from curiosity.  
"I started training at your gym when it weighed a hundred," Shinji said, "That was five months ago. Weights have been added to it over time. I dunno how much it weighs,"  
"Um, guys," one of the judges gave a meek smile, "You two not supposed to talking. This is supposed to be a match,"  
Ippo nodded, "All right," He then turned toward Shinji and smirked, "All right, let's see just how much better you are without the vest than with. I'm gonna go all-out against you,"  
Shinji gulped.  
Ippo dashed in with inhumanly speed, an impressed Ranma even whistling at such speeds. The dozen or so people that had passed and failed their pro test watched in amazement, unable to fathom how someone as large as Ippo could move so fast.  
Shinji's eyes widened as he saw Ippo's dash-in. Reacting purely on instinct, he brought his left arm up and around in a hook punch, hitting Ippo as Ippo landed his own left hook punch.  
Both fighters traded hits and staggered backwards.  
Due to lack of experience, Shinji was unable to recover as quickly as Ippo from such a brutal punch. Ippo's experience made him used to being hit hard. However, even he was surprised that such a strong punch could come from someone with a frame like Shinji.  
His vest must've initial weighed a hundred pounds for him to have a punch that strong, Ippo thought.  
Ippo dashed in and landed a series of punches on Shinji's face and body, causing the young man to begin retreating in an attempt to recover and compose himself. Unfortunately, Ippo would let him have none of that, pressing forward and continuing to punch as Shinji assumed a guarding position.  
In a split second, the tides were turned as Shinji spotted a slight pause in the combination of punches and seized the opportunity, sending out a wicked straight right punch at Ippo's face, hitting him full force and sending the retired champion down to one of his knees.  
"Oh my god! He's down!" one guy shouted in shock.  
Shinji seemed even more shock than Ippo or anyone else. He had this regretful look on his face as he had just realized he did something terribly wrong.  
Ippo remained in the kneeling position for a good six count before he got back to his feet.  
Shinji has a very very strong punch, Ippo thought. I feel a bit dizzy. If I knew that his punch was that strong, I wouldn'tve allowed him to hit me full force like that. I guess that's what I get for my curiosity.  
Ippo shook the cobwebs from his head and smirked toward Shinji.  
"That's a good punch," Ippo commented, "A very good one,"  
Without saying anything else, Ippo dashed in, intent on ending the fight quickly.

Shinji and the others emerged from Kourakuen Hall sometime around three in the afternoon. Although it had taken a little bit over five hours, the pro test was finally done and over with.  
Ippo wearing the weighted vest over his outfit, getting used to it.  
"Man, I can't believe you carry this must weight," Ippo commented, "This vest is incredibly heavy,"  
"I wasn't used to it at first, but over time, I grew to eventually forget about it," Shinji answered.  
"How heavy you think this vest is?" Ranma smirked, tapping one of the plates located in the back area of the vest, "Two hundred? Two fifty?"  
Akane held her hands forward, "Let me see,"  
"Um, are you sure?" Ippo asked, "It's really heavy,"  
"Don't worry, she can handle it," Ranma grinned.  
Ippo shrugged and took off the vest, struggling to get it over his head. He then handed it to Akane. Even Akane was surprised at the weight and ended up staggering forward trying to keep her balance.  
Ranma reached out and grabbed one of her shoulders to keep her from falling.  
"Jeez, this thing weighs a ton," Akane commented.  
"A ton?" several of them gasped.  
"Not literally a ton," Akane quickly said, "but it sure feels like it. It's definitely a lot heavier than I anticipated,"  
Ranma smirked toward several of the other girls, "I betcha none of you girls can lift the vest,"  
"Is that a challenge?" Luna smirked, cracking her knuckles.  
"Yeah, but without the use of magic or anything," Ranma said.  
Luna shrugged, "Count me out then,"  
There was nothing for her to prove anyway so it didn't bother he if she couldn't show that she could get that weight up.  
Priss felt up to the challenge. She walked over to where Akane was as she had the vest lying on the ground by her feet, leaning it against one of her legs.  
"Whatcha want me to do? Just lift it?" Priss asked.  
Ranma nodded, "Uh huh,"  
"And what would you do if I did lift it?" Priss smirked, wanting an incentive.  
"Well, since I know you won't lift it, then I'll give a crazy incentive," Ranma said, "If you lift it, then I'll be your slave for a week,"  
"A whole week?" Priss asked, eyes widened, "As in doing whatever I want you to do?"  
Ranma narrowed his eyes, "You better not be thinking some hentai thoughts. That's just sick,"  
Misato quickly stepped forward and moved Priss aside, "I'll give it a try,"  
"Back off!" Priss snapped at Misato.  
"Guys, quit fighting," Ranma said, "I was only joking around,"  
Misato and Priss seemed to give up wanting to lift the vest now.  
"Damn, psycho women," Ranma muttered under his breath.  
Shinji walked over to where the vest was and picked it up with relative easy, putting it on over his clothes. The sight impressed the hell out of Ippo and Akane since they were no aware of just how heavy the vest was.  
"I guess we shouldn't be dwelling over the weight of the vest," Shinji said, "We should move on to other things,"  
"You've got a point," Sylia said.  
"Congrats on the both of you passing your test," Akane commented to Oki and Shinji, "You both did well,"  
A badly bruised Shinji smiled, "Man, I can't believe I passed, even after I was knocked out by Ippo,"  
Ippo gave a meek smile, "Sorry about that. I kinda got too in to the fight and forgot I was supposed to go easy,"  
"It's fine," Shinji said, "I don't care if I lost or not. Even though I lost, and pretty badly at that, the judges considered me as having done well enough to pass. Thanks for your help,"  
"It's no problem," Ippo smiled, "I'm glad we got that problem resolved. It would've been a crying shame if they stood by their call and not allow you to pass,"  
"Hypothetically speaking, wouldn't I be able to just take the next pro test that comes up?" Shinji asked.  
Ippo nodded, "Yeah, but the next pro test isn't for another four months,"  
"Oh,"  
"Well, I'm glad everything's fine," Ranma patted Shinji's shoulder, "You did really well,"  
"Thanks," Shinji smiled.  
Ranma took off his bracers, "Well, now that you've gotten used to that weighted vest, it's time you start wearing these here bracers I wear over my forearms,"  
"I-I don't think so!" Shinji said, "Those things'll tear my arms right out if their sockets," Ranma laughed as he placed his bracers back on, "I guess you have a point. We need to get your ki development up to par before you can do so,"  
Shinji said nothing. He didn't look forward to that.  
"What are you talking about?" Ippo asked curiously.  
"Nothing all that interesting," Ranma shrugged, "I was just mentioning stuff about his training,"  
"The training you make him undergo is very unique I must say," Ippo said, "I remember you would be training Shinji in weight development. I never suspected that you would do something like this,"  
Ranma grinned.  
"Hey, before we head home, how about we go get something to eat?" Nene suggested, "I'm hungry,"  
"You're always hungry, Nene," Misato smirked.  
Nene narrowed her eyes.  
"Where should we go eat?" Akane asked.  
"How about we let Shinji and Oki decide," Ranma said, "Today's their day. Let them choose,"

Shinji found himself looking up at the rafters of the ceiling of the dojo. He noticed that one of the rafters were dented and had a head sized indent in it.  
He was seeing white spots and felt extremely disoriented.  
Although Shinji was now a pro boxer, nothing had changed. He had resumed his usual training the moment he got back in MegaTokyo that night. Since they had all gotten back in the evening, Shinji and Ranma were to spar against one another, Shinji wanting to test out how much better he had become now that the vest was removed.  
In every sense of the work, Shinji had a new body.  
Despite this, Shinji could not touch, let alone defeat Ranma. However, the match had been forfeit when Shinji hit his head against the rafter of the dojo ceiling and knocked himself out.  
Ranma laughed, "Man, you should've seen the look on your face when you tried jumping over my kick and just kept on going up. I wish I had a camera,"  
"What the hell happened?" Shinji asked weakly.  
"You hit your head on the ceiling," Ranma snickered.  
"How the hell did that happen?" he asked. The ceiling was over fifteen feet high. "You jumped," Ranma answered, "Unfortunately, you jumped a tab bit on the high side and hit your head up against the rafters,"  
"How did I manage to do that? I can't jump that high," Shinji said.  
"Now you can, since you're no longer being weighed down by that vest and your legs and significantly stronger than before," Ranma commented.  
"Wait, you're telling me that I can now jump high enough to hit my head against the ceiling of the dojo? That's insane!" Shinji sat upright.  
Ranma grinned, "Welcome to my world. Once you get used to how high you can jump, you'll be jumping on to house rooftops in no time. Before long, once you get used to triangle jumps and repelling off buildings, you'll be able to reach building rooftops in no time,"  
Shinji became deathly silent. This was too much. He can jump high enough to reach the rooftop of houses, much like the way Ranma could? That's unbelievable. "Your body is insanely strong compared to before you started wearing a vest," Ranma stated, "Now that you're no longer wearing a vest, your body is every bit as strong as when it had the vest on but is no longer weighed down by its weight,"  
"So tell me, how much does the vest weigh?" Shinji asked, referring to the vest that was sitting the corner of his room. It would remain their for sentimental purposes, Shinji have qualified in this form of training and moving on to better things.  
Ranma smirked, "If you defeat me, I'll tell you,"  
"How about I just place the vest on a scale and find out for myself," Shinji smirked.  
"Scales don't go that high," Ranma grinned, "They stop at two fifty,"  
"The vest weighs more than two hundred and fifty pounds?" Shinji's eyes widened as he fell to the dojo floor in shock.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, and we'll leave it as that,"  
"C'mon, I'm dying to know how much it weighs," Shinji said.  
"Defeat me and you'll find out," Ranma grinned.  
"That's easier said than done," Shinji sighed.  
"Okay, how about I'll tell you if you can hit me?" Ranma asked, "Would that be good enough for ya?"  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess so, but it's still going to be a near impossible task,"  
"Now that you're no longer wearing a vest, you'll be moving on to more advanced forms of training,"  
"You're telling me that wearing the vest was only a basic form of training?" he asked. It was like training with Ippo. Shinji had no idea exactly what kind of training was in store for him. It was as if all that he did was only in preparation for real training.  
"First off, you're to spend a few weeks getting used to your new body," Ranma said, "Eve, myough you're no longer wearing a vest, you're going to be very unused to your body,"  
"What should I do?" Shinji asked.  
"When you go to the gym, spend your time doing stuff jump-rope and jogging," Ranma said, "Your entire training routine at the gym will need to change. Ippo will change it accordingly,"  
"How will he change it?"  
"He'll probably have you doing tons of roadwork and jump-rope as well," Ranma answered, "He'll probably also have you doing more weightlifting exercises too,"  
"What about speed bag and punching bags and such?" Shinji asked, "I like doing those,"  
Ranma shook his head, "You definitely won't be doing punching bags, that's for sure. You might be able to do speed bag though,"  
"How come? How come I won't be doing punching bags anymore?"  
"Because your new body has the ability to break right through those bags with no problem," Ranma said, "I'm just telling you this in advance so you don't wreck Ippo's gym equipment. God forbid you use half of what you're capable of and end up destroying the punching bag and needing to replace it,"  
"No way," Shinji said skeptically, "There's no way I can be that good, c-can I?"  
"Now that you took your vest off, have you any idea exactly what you're capable of?" Ranma asked.  
Shinji shook his head, "No,"  
Ranma sat down next to Shinji in the center of the dojo.  
"First off, there are several things you need to give up at least until you understand how your body works," Ranma said.  
"Like what?" "Whatever you do, do not fight in a fit of anger," Ranma said, "I'm dead serious. You have no idea of what your body is capable of and can easily kill someone, even if you figure you'd hit a guy hard enough to knock his lights out. I'm glad of all people, you fought against someone like Ippo for your pro test. If you fought anyone else, you could've serious hurt them and put them in the hospital,"  
Shinji gulped.  
"Just take it easy so you get used to your new body," Ranma said, "Test yourself and what your body is capable of, but do so in a controlled manner,"  
"Okay," Shinji said, "I'll remember that,"  
"Okay, on to other things," Ranma began, "Now that you're a pro, do you remember what I asked you to do when you became pro?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, you mentioned something not too long ago. It was over the summer when you and the others went to the beach. You want me to go to Hokkaido and establish a friendly yearly tournament between students our school and the 'Hyusa School of Martial Arts',"  
Ranma nodded, "Correct,"  
"D-do I hafta?" Shinji almost whined.  
Ranma smiled.  
"Don't worry about it, I'll come with you,"

Emiko was in his room that late evening.  
She was startled when Shinji knocked on the door, done with his evening sparring session against Ranma. Finished with his shoulder, Shinji wanted to relax and perhaps read a book or magazine in the meanwhile until he eventually fell asleep.  
Emiko looked down toward the vest where it was lying in the middle of the room. She had originally found it in the corner of the room when she came in not too long ago. However, curiosity got the better of her and she tried to lift it to see if it was as heavy as she thought.  
She hadn't been able to lift it and had proceeded to try to drag it, eventually dragging it to the middle of the bedroom before Shinji had knocked.  
Realizing it was Shinji, she tried to drag the vest back in to its rightful place.  
"You decent?" she heard Shinji's muffled voice through the door.  
"Um, n-no," she said, "Um, I'm getting dressed,"  
Outside in the hallway, Shinji blushed as a sudden image of a naked Emiko in his bedroom flashed before his mind.  
What the hell is wrong with me, Shinji thought.  
"All right, I'll just wait," he said.  
Within the room, Emiko struggled to try and move the vest back in to its place. Before long, she managed to get it back in the corner and flopped down on the bed, satisfied.  
"Okay, um, I'm dressed. You can come in now," she said, willing her breathing to be less erratic.  
Shinji opened the door and cautiously looked in. Inside, he saw Emiko sitting on her bed, fully dressed.  
"Yo," he said.  
"Hey," she said, pretending to be occupied looking at her manga book, "Um, how goes the training?"  
"It went well," Shinji said, sitting down in his bed, "Luna healed me once again,"  
"What happened this time?" she asked, "Did Ranma hit you too hard?"  
Shinji gave a sheepish smile, "Um, not quite. I accidentally knocked myself out when I jumped too high and hit my head against the rafters of the ceiling in the dojo,"  
"Against the rafters? But their around fifteen feet high," Emiko was surprised.  
"I know," Shinji chuckled, "I guess I didn't realize my jump would be that high after I took the vest off,"  
"That's amazing, to improve so much in such a short period of time," Emiko commented, "It took me years to jump that high,"  
"How did you learn to jump really high?" he asked, "Did you wear some kinda weighted vest as well?"  
Emiko shook her head, "Not quite. When I was young, a fast growing sapling was planted in the ground by where I lived. Every day, I would jump over it. As the sapling grew, my jump gradually improved. I didn't notice I had a high jump until after a long time. This was because the sapling was growing at a short rate and it took many years before it even grew up to around that height,"  
"Wow," he said, rubbing the top of his head where the bump used to be, "That sounds a heck of a lot easier and less painful than what I did,"  
Shinji glanced over toward the vest. A second later, he walked over to where it was.  
Does he realize that I was fiddling around with the vest and was trying to move it, Emiko thought nervously.  
Shinji picked up the vest. Although it was heavy and he felt the weight of it, it didn't really feel all that heavy to him. He lifted it up and down a few times, wondering what its weight was.  
Emiko found herself staring at Shinji's back. Because Shinji no longer wore a vest, the muscles of his body were more predominant as they pressed against the fabric of his clothes. The muscles of his back seemed to pop out toward her even though the shirt he was wearing.  
"Ranma said that if I could hit him, he'll tell me how much this vest weighs," Shinji turned around. He caught sight of Emiko as she blushed and turned her gaze away, embarrassed that she had just caught her staring.  
He looked down toward the front of his pants, scared that his fly was open. Otherwise, Emiko wouldn't blush like that unless it was something stupid that he did. He was relieved when he realized he was wearing sweat pants, and thus, had no fly to be open.  
"Where do you think I should hang this vest up?" he asked, holding it up in front of him as if it was a painting waiting to be hung somewhere. He mere fact that he was holding such tremendous weight out and in front of him, his arms locked, meant that he had incredible upper body strength, especially around the shoulders. What was even more incredible was that he made the vest look like it was light.  
He walked over toward one of the walls and held the vest against it, "It'd probably look really good over here since this wall is so plain. Unfortunately, if this vest weights so much, I wonder if we could plant nails in the wall that would support the weight,"  
He held the vest with one hand as he went about tapping the wall with his other hand, trying to figure out where wood boards would be so a nail could be driven in through the sheetrock and in to the wood.  
"Hm, there's only two places where it isn't hollow behind the wall," Shinji commented, "I guess I can't hang it against the wall here by nails,"  
"Um, how much do you think that vest weighs?" Emiko asked, "I'm surprised you can lift it so easily. Ippo said he had trouble lifting it at first because he was unused to the weight,"  
"I'm not too sure," Shinji said. He walked over toward the bed and held it out for Emiko, "Ya wanna give it a try?"  
"N-no thanks," she held her hands up defensively. She already knew she couldn't lift it. She could barely even drag it, let alone get it up off the floor.  
Shinji shrugged. Unfortunately for him, the motion caused the vest to hit the top of the futon Emiko was lying on, causing it to break due to the extreme weight.  
Emiko gave a yelp of surprise as two of the bed legs on the side Shinji was standing on broke, causing her to end up tumbling toward the side and off the bed and right by Shinji's feet.  
Shinji placed the vest down on the ground and knelt down by Emiko, "You okay,"  
Emiko found herself looking up at Shinji and noticed the concerned looking on his face. For some odd reason, she found the situation rather funny and ended up giggling.  
Shinji ended up snickering, the sight of Emiko giggling making him laugh.  
"Well, I guess those extra nuts and bolts we had left over after I finished making the futon weren't extra nuts and bolts," Shinji smirked.

Shinji noticed Emiko's scent as he slept on her futon.  
Since Shinji had accidentally broken Emiko's futon, he had taken it upon himself to sleep on it for now until he fixed it the next day. The frame had been removed and put off in one corner of the room and he was sleeping on the futon mattress as it lay on the floor.  
The futon smelled very much like Emiko, a strawberry-like smell that was from the shampoo she usually used. The lingering scent made it very hard for him to sleep. It made him wonder why he had been thinking about Emiko more often recently. Twisting and turning, Shinji tried to make himself go to sleep.  
Sunday Shinji spent the day fixing the futon and finding a place to hang his vest. He spent a portion of his morning going out to a furniture store where he bought himself a display case and assembled it back at the dojo.  
After he had finished assembling his display case and placed his weight vest within for display, taking care to pucamesmall note indicating its significance and how he had used it for training, Ranma approached him. Carrying with him was a pair of bokkens, both of them broken in half at the center.  
"What are those for?" Shinji had asked as he watched Ranma put them in the display case, not knowing of its significance.  
Ranma smiled, "Nothing much,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Okay,"  
Ranma did weird things like that and Shinji had learned not to really question Ranma's motives. There was usually some hidden agenda to what he did that no one knew about but would later find out when he explained it.  
Little did Shinji know that those were the same two bokkens that Ranma had Shinji break just a short time before he had begun his long road to becoming a boxer.  
"So, whatcha plan on doing today?" Ranma asked from out of the blue.  
"I'm not too sure," he shrugged, "I fixed the futon I accidentally broke and now I'm finished with the display case so I'm relatively free,"  
"You wanna head on up to Hokkaido then?" Ranma asked, grinning, "Now would be a good time to go,"  
"But I have school tomorrow," Shinji said.  
"No you don't," Ranma answered, "Didntja forget? You have a four day weekend,"  
"Oh yeah," Shinji said, "I don't have class until Wednesday," "So, you up to going?" Ranma said, "We can be back by tomorrow and in time for you to go about with you usual training,"  
"Well, I guess I don't see why not,"

Shinji looked at the nanban mirror in his hands.  
"I've never used this before," Shinji commented.  
"You're gonna hafta use it sooner or later," Ranma said, "It's best that you learn now than later,"  
"I guess you have a point," Shinji shrugged.  
"All you need to do is think of Hokkaido as you shed a tear on the mirror," Ranma stated, "That's all,"  
"Is there anything else I need to know?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma grinned, "Nah,"

Shinji screamed as he found himself appearing thousands of feet up in the air high above the province of Hokkaido.  
Ranma laughed as they plummeted toward the terra firma down below.  
"Oh my God!" Shinji shouted over the roaring winds as they both fell at well over a hundred miles per hour.  
"Better think quick," Ranma shouted back.  
"Like what?" Shinji shouted, "Is this some kinda crazy training?"  
Ranma shrugged, "I guess. Sooner or later, you need to learn how to land correctly from great heights without hurting yourself. This is a good way of forcing you to do so,"  
"This is crazy!" Shinji said, his life flashing right before his very eyes.  
"Don't worry," Ranma felt the need to reassure the young man, "I won't let anything happen to you. Just try and figure out what you would do in a situation like this,"  
Ranma had intended to teach Shinji how to land correctly without hurting himself, but having it where he had to experience a high altitude free-fall might be a bit on the extreme side. Much like how the best way to force a person to learn to swim is to throw him in to the deep end of the pool, forcing Shinji to learn to land correctly required something extreme like this. Since Shinji was a very strong person, the experience shouldn't leave any mental scars.  
When Ranma said that he would make sure nothing happened to Shinji, a wave of relief washed over him and he suddenly became less panicked. He was still feeling a great sense of anxiety as they both continued to fall, but no where near as paralyzing a panic attack.  
"Try and figure out what you're supposed to do," Ranma said, "I'll make sure you won't get hurt hitting the ground. However, you need to try and figure out the steps to landing correctly,"  
Shinji forced himself to calm down and clear his mind, taking slow and deliberate breaths.  
"Excellent," Ranma said, "You already realize you need to keep yourself calm in the free-fall,"  
I need to slow down my descent, Shinji thought. To do so, I need to use the wind resistance in my favor. I need to angle my body parallel to the ground to create more surface area.  
Shinji spread out his arms and angled his body so that it presented the most surface area as he continued to fall.  
"Good," Ranma said, "Doing so slows you down. It's not necessary but it's recommended when you're learning to land correctly,"  
"N-now what do I do?" Shinji asked, starting feel the sense of panic again as the ground came rushing up to him.  
"Keep yourself relaxed," Ranma said, "Picture yourself as if you were jumping off out of a second story window. It doesn't matter how high you are, so long as you picture that. Right before you hit the ground, bring you feet around so you would land feet first,"  
"I-I'll try," he said.  
Unfortunately for Shinji, he was unable to remain calm as the ground raced up toward him. Around twenty feet from hitting the ground, Shinji tried to angle his body so his feet would touch the ground first, but his ever-growing panic prevented him from doing so.  
He realized he would hit the ground stomach first in what would could best be described as a body splash.  
Shinji shouted, closing his eyes just before he hit the ground.  
At the very last second, giant wings shot out from Ranma's back as he flapped them once and swooped in and grabbed a hold of Shinji, slowing his bone-shatter descent to a stop and landed safely on the ground, Shinji in his arms.  
Shinji's eyes remained closed even though he no longer felt the sensation of free-fall.  
"You can open your eyes now," Ranma smirked, "You're safely on the ground,"  
Shinji slowly opened his eyes. He looked around and noticed that they were indeed on the ground and was in Ranma's eyes.  
Ranma let Shinji down on to his feet.  
Shinji had this confused look on his face, not really knowing what to do.  
"I-I think that was probably the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life," Shinji said, his knees weak and shaking.  
"Don't worry," Ranma said, "You did pretty well all the way up to the end. Given the time, you'll be able to land correctly and not hurt yourself,"  
"Y-you really think so?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah,"  
"W-what'd I do wrong?" Shinji asked.  
"Much like everyone else, you panicked. However, you'll grow out of that. Once you stop panicking, you'll realize that it's really easy,"  
Shinji and Ranma walked up to the dojo entrance to the 'Hyusa School of Martial Arts'.  
Ranma whistled as he looked around. The dojo was probably twice the size of his school and located in an ideal place, a residential area located closely to the busy city a short distance away. Because of its location, many people could stop by the dojo and train while on their way home from work or even before they left for work.  
It was somewhere around evening, Ranma and Shinji having spent a good portion of their afternoon finding the dojo in the first place. Hokkaido was a large province and it took quite a bit of time before they came across someone that knew of the dojo's location.  
"This is a nice dojo," Ranma commented, "Even nicer than my own,"  
Shinji smirked, "What, you're jealous?"  
Ranma laughed, "Perhaps,"  
Together, the two of them entered the dojo.  
Once inside, they saw the vast expanse of the interior of the dojo, the area occupied with perhaps more students than Ranma's own dojo. However, that would be understandable since Ranma taught during the day, when many people were at work. If Ranma taught in the evening or early morning, there would be many more students. As to why he taught during times when people were usually at work, no one but Ranma knew.  
They stood there and watched as an man that looked to be somewhere in his fifties taught at the head of the class. Although he looked fifty or so, he was most likely much older, his training in martial arts making him look far younger than he originally was.  
"Let's wait for the class to finish before we talk to the head of the school," Ranma said, gesturing toward a row of benches located just off to the side of the entrance.  
"Okay," Shinji shrugged.  
Before theyhe wld get seated, a very beautiful woman approached the two of them.  
"Good evening," the woman said.  
Ranma found himself a bit taken aback at the woman's graceful beauty. There was a sense of graceful elegance to her. She looked to be much younger than what her real age was. Shinji assumed she looked to be around early thirties. However, she was probably much older. Seeing her gave him a good idea of how some people did indeed grow well with age.  
"Um, hi," Ranma smiled, "I'm Ranma. And this here is Shinji,"  
"Hello, I'm Shori Hyusa," the woman smiled in return.

new stuff 10/10

Shinji stood by silently. It was amazing to watch Ranma interact with women, especially women he didn't know. It was as if he knew exactly what to say without even having to think about it.  
"Shori Hyusa, huh?" Ranma scratched his chin, "That name sounds familiar,"  
Shori smiled, "I guess you might've heard my name from time to time,"  
Ranma snapped his fingers, "Ah, I know. You're that CEO chick,"  
"C-chick?" Shori was surprised at Ranma's rather odd choice of words.  
"Yeah, you're that chick that's the CEO of Aido Airlines," Ranma said.  
Shori cleared her throat, "Yes, you're right, I am the 'chick' that's the CEO of Aido Airlines,"  
Ranma gave a quick laugh, "Sorry. I guess chick was the wrong choice of words. I kinda lack tact as you can tell,"  
"It's fine," she said, smiling slightly. This Ranma person was rather intriguing. Most people would be intimidated by her status since she was a very well known person, at least by name.  
"Wow, you must be a really good business woman," Ranma commented, "Aido Airlines is a cool airline as well. They don't crash all that much,"  
Shori coughed, shocked at such a comment. Was that that considered a compliment? She cleared her throat and asked, "So, what brings you here?"  
Ranma chuckled, "Actually, that's what I was about to ask you. If you're the CEO of Aido Airlines, why're you all the way here in Hokkaido? Aido Airport is located just a short distance from MegaTokyo, right?"  
"I'm here visiting some family," she said, "What brings you here?"  
Ranma glanced down toward Shori's hands and noticed that she wasn't wearing a wedding ring.  
"You married?" he asked from out of the blue.  
"W-what?" she was shocked at such a personal question, "I don't think that's any of your business,"  
Sure, she was a very beautiful single woman and she had her fair share of people hitting on her, but never had she met a person that moved so fast. There was usually some form of protocol to getting a woman's personal information rather than just outright ask such questions, especially within such a short time after meeting each other.  
Ranma pointed toward her hands, "I notice you're not wearing a wedding ring so I assume you're not married,"  
Shori looked down at her hands. Her hands were bare except two tiny bracelets that the wrist of her right hand, given to her by two good friends of hers from her childhood, Akemi and Reia.  
"I don't see the relevance of such an observation," Shori asked, giving Ranma a confused look.  
Ranma shrugged, "Well, you ask why Shinji and I were here. We're here to challenge a man named Tsuki Hyusa. Since you two share the same name, I figured he'd be your husband. However, since it seems like you're not married, I assume he's either your brother or your father,"  
Shori was silent for several moments. Had she really jumped to conclusion and thought Ranma had been trying to hit on her and get her personal information? She gave a small laugh, "Oh,"  
"Why, what were you thinking?" Ranma asked.  
"Um, nothing," she quickly said, "Anyway, Tsuki Hyusa is my father. How come you're here to challenge him? What has he done?"  
Shori knew her father was a good man and never did anything wrong. Sure, he was a shrewd business man decades ago when he was the CEO of Aido Airlines, before he passed his business on to his daughter, but he wasn't the type of person that had enemies. Although a shrewd businessman, all his business decisions usually benefited both parties. Ranma jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the man by the head of the class, "Is that your father?"  
"Yes," she said, "Might I ask as to why you're here to challenge him?"  
Ranma said, "I wish to find out how good he is. We're from the 'Anything Goes School of Martial Arts' and had come to see how good he is. We're interested in setting up a friendly yearly martial arts tournament,"  
"T-that's it?" she said, surprised that this was something totally different from what she had originally thought.  
Ranma nodded, "Yep,"

Ranma and Shori sat next to one another.  
They were sitting by one of the benches that lined the front of the dojo. In the middle of the dojo mat was Shinji as he faced two opponents. Ranma recognized them as the two guys he met awhile ago, Katsuhito and Otomo.  
The dojo mat was empty except for the man named Tsuki Hyusa who seemed to be acting as referee of the match.  
"Don't you think your student is outnumbered fighting against two opponents at the same time?" Shori asked.  
Ranma smirked, "Wow, you've got a really proper form of speaking,"  
Shori blushed.  
"Ah, don't worry about it," Ranma shrugged, "It's kinda cool. Anyway, do I think Shinji's outnumbered? Yes. Do I think he's outskilled? No. Shinji barely lost to the two of 'em back when they challenged our school. However, he's significantly better now than he was back then,"  
"You seem pretty confident of your student's abilities," Shori commented.  
"Yep," Ranma grinned, "I taught him myself. I dunno about how good your old man is but I'm sure Shinji will be able to beat Katsuhito and Otomo,"  
"My 'old man' has a name. It's Tsuki," Shori gave Ranma a wry look.  
Ranma shrugged.  
The two of them sat in silence as they waited for the match to begin.  
"So, what's yer story?" Ranma asked, figuring it was better to fill the silent gap with conversation.  
"What do you mean?" she asked.  
"Dunno," he said, "Like how come you're here? You're here visiting your old man?"  
"Yes, I'm here visiting my so-called old man," Shori said, wondering if the man beside her was incorrigible. "Where ya live?" he asked.  
Shori regarded Ranma for a moment.  
"Where do you live?" she asked.  
"I live in MegaTokyo now," he said, "I used to live in Nerima before it burned to the ground in the 'Nerima Massacre',"  
Shori's eyes widened, "N-Nerima? You lived there! I lived in Hyaka," She didn't seem to find any reason not to tell the man. Besides, he had given her some of his information first. It was only proper to reveal some information about herself as well.  
"Hyaka, huh? That was one town over from where I used to live," Ranma said.  
Shori nodded, "Yes. You're right. Wait a minute, you name wouldn't happen to be Ranma Saotome, would it?"  
Ranma narrowed his eyes, "Yeah, it is. How didja know that?" He remembered only giving her his first name. However, he figured there should be no reason to be surprised that people knew his name. He had done many things to help this world and his name was very well-known in the martial arts community.  
"Wow, you're Ranma Saotome," Shori had this very surprised look on her face, "I can't believe we're actually meeting. It's such as small world,"  
Ranma continued to regard Shori cautiously.  
"My friends and I had a crush on you," she blurted out.  
Shori's eyes widened as she immediately realized she wasn't supposed to had said that aloud. What was even more shocking was that she felt like she was acting like a schoolgirl when she realized that. She was a mature and full grown woman, not some love-struck schoolgirl meeting her crush face-to-face.  
Ranma regarded Shori for a moment, his gaze making Shori self-conscious of herself. After a moment, he shrugged his shoulders as if dismissing a thought, "Well, perhaps if we met in a different life or a different world, things could've been different. I'm not the same guy you and yer friends had a crush on,"  
"Of course," she tried to compose herself, "Everyone changes,"  
Ranma couldn't agree more.  
"I thought everyone died in the 'Nerima Massacre'," Shori said, "The entire town was leveled. Were you out of town when that happened?"  
Ranma was silent for a moment.  
"I'm sorry," she said, "I shouldn't be asking you such questions. They probably bring back bad memories,"  
Ranma shook his head, "Nah. It happened so long ago that it doesn't bother me when I talk about it,"  
"I remember it very clearly, like it was yesterday," she said.  
"Oh?"  
"I was walking down the street and was on my way to the amusement park to meet my two friends, Akemi and Reia," she said, thinking back a few decades, "I even remember where I was when it happened. I was walking past this fountain when I saw a brilliant flash of light. The next thing I knew, I saw towers of smoke billowing up in to the sky,"  
Ranma smirked, "That first tower of billowing smoke was probably my house going up in flames. My house was the first thing to get destroyed. I was minding my own business when it happened, when I saw these missile fly right by me and in to the house. The next thing I knew, I was climbing out of a pile of debris where my house used to be. Among the debris were my friends and family, all of them dead,"  
"Oh god, that's horrible," Shori felt sad, almost wanting to cry, "No one should have to go through what you went through,"  
Ranma took a few deep breaths. Perhaps he wasn't so indifferent to his past as he thought. Dreading up old memories did bother him at times. However, the pain-  
filled heart he carried for all those years had died down to a dull ache.  
"That was a long time ago," he said, "I've learned to move on,"  
The two of them glanced up and noticed Shinji standing over Katsuhito and Otomo, both of them having submitted to individual submission moves Shinji had applied on the two of them.  
"Damn, that was quick," Ranma commented, looking at his watch, "He just took care of them in a little under three minutes. Not bad,"  
Ranma and Shori stayed where they were as they watched Shinji help the two opponents up to their feet and bow to each other respectfully.  
"That was an excellent match," Otomo commented, "I can't believe how quickly you've grown in such a short time,"  
"T-thanks," Shinji gave a meek smile.  
"You're a very powerful fighter," the old man that was referee had said.  
Shinji regarded the man. The man standing before him was none other than Tsuki Hyusa, the guy who owned the 'Hyusa School of Martial Arts', Tsuki. He was tall and fit, most likely in better shape that people half his age. He had short brown hair, most of it starting to go gray and a gray mustache. He had a looked that gave off a sense of wisdom and patience.  
"How old are you, son?" the man asked.  
"I'm nineteen, sir," Shinji answered. "Nineteen, huh? You must have an extreme gift for martial arts," the man commented, "You fight as if you've been doing this for decades,"  
"Thank you," he said, "I think it's because I started so late in my life and I train extra hard to make up for the difference in experience," Shinji found himself very at ease talking to Tsuki. Perhaps it was because Shinji was much more comfortable talking to adults than people his own age.  
"You definitely have my attention," the man said, "Since you're skilled enough to defeat two of my best students at the same time, it seems like the only opponent that can face you is myself. Are you sure you wish to challenge me? I won't go easy on you,"  
Shinji cast a nervous glance toward Ranma. Ranma simply grinned and shrugged. It seemed like the decision to continue fighting or not was up to Shinji. However, Ranma had requested that the students of their schools started interacted with one another in a tournament. It was Shinji's job to make it work. The first thing to do was establish a rapport with one another so that negotiations could go smoothly, even if that meant challenging, Tsuki, the Grandmaster of this school.  
"I'd like to fight you, sir," Shinji bowed.  
"So, how long do you plan on visiting Hokkaido?" Shori asked.  
Ranma shrugged, "Not too sure,"  
He and Shori didn't seem to pay all that much attention to the fight between Shinji and Tsuki. It seemed to be mostly one-way, Shinji on the receiving end of the beatings. However, due to his high pain threshold and endurance, he did not succumb where many men would had succumbed.  
"I think it kinda depends how well Shinji does against your old man," Ranma said.  
"Can you please not call my father 'old man'," Shori said in a slow voice, "He's not that old. Please, call him Tsuki,"  
Ranma gave a chuckle, "Sorry. I'll try and keep that in mind. I'm used to calling my father 'old man' so I guess I'm used to using the term 'old man' for any father figures," Ranma found it rather amusing. In a sense, Ranma was the 'old man' since he was older that Grandmaster, probably by a good thirty or so years.  
"Still-" she said.  
"I understand," he gave a smile.  
"Anyway, what do you mean by it depending on how well Shinji does against my father? What does that have to do with how long you stay?" she asked, wanting to get back on to the subject.  
"Well, if Shinji does well and we begin negotiation and planning a tournament, then we'll probably stay here until tomorrow," Ranma answered, "Otherwise, we'll probably leave for MegaTokyo tonight,"  
"Please, there's no need to go," she said, "You're welcome to stay with us,"  
"Huh?" Ranma was confused.  
"We have extra guestroom in our home," she said, speaking mostly on her father's behalf. Even though she was only visiting, she knew her father and the home well enough to know that he could accommodate Ranma and Shinji.  
"Um, why the heck would ya invite us in to your home?" Ranma scratched his head, "We're basically total strangers,"  
Shori shrugged, "I don't know. Even though we've only been talking for a short time, I feel like I already know you,"  
"That sounds like one crazy reason," Ranma shrugged, "However, if you don't mind, then I guess we don't mind,"  
Shinji opened his eye and found himself looking up toward the rafters of the ceiling of the dojo.  
"Man, what happened?" he asked, sitting upright, a throbbing sensation in his head.  
"You were choked out," Tsuki said, "You didn't tap-out so I was forced to choke you out and bring the match to an end,"  
Shinji scratched his head. He didn't even remember being put in a choke hold, let alone being choked out. He paused for a moment to think about what had happened.  
After a moment, he remembered. The initial lack of oxygen to his brain had made his memory a bit fuzzy. Now he remembered. He had attempted a lunging punch toward Tsuki, only to have his punch skillfully dodged and having a choke hold applied on him from behind.  
"Now I remember," Shinji said, getting back up to his feet.  
"You did really well," the man said, "You managed to land several good blows on me. You also took so many of my own attacks and brushed it aside that I started to wonder if you were ever going to go down. I figured the best way to end it quickly was to choke you out,"  
"I guess it worked," Shinji gave a sheepish smile.  
The two of them laughed.  
Ranma and Shori approached the two of them.  
"You suck, Shinji. I can't believe you lost," Ranma smirked.  
"What?" Shinji's eyes widened. Ranma laughed, "I was only joking. You did really well, a lot better than I expected,"  
"What, you expected me to lose?" Shinji narrowed his eyes toward Ranma.  
Ranma grinned, seemingly unbothered with letting Shinji know the truth.  
"I figure you were gonna go down within the first three minutes after the match started," Ranma continued to grin, "However, you held out much longer than that and even managed to land a few hits,"  
"Um, thanks," Shinji said.

Ranma never went on to fight Tsuki. He had been there to watch over Shinji and had never been there to fight. Besides, it would be moot for him to fight since the outcome would already be pre-determined. Sometimes it sucked being such a good fighter. It left the fun out of a good wholesome struggle to defeat an opponent.  
"So lettme get this straight," Tsuki said, looking up from his plate of food, "You two both came here, all the way from MegaTokyo, to establish some kind of negotiations for a tournament between our schools?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yes,"  
Shinji, Shori, Ranma, and Tsuki were sitting by a large table that had expensive looking food laid out in front of them. The dining room was gigantic even by aristocratic standards. They were in Tsuki's home, a giant mansion located a short distance from where the dojo was situated.  
"A tournament between schools, huh?" Tsuki thought aloud, "That sounds like a very good idea. It gives students a great incentive to strive to become better than they currently are, because they'll be aware that they have a counterpart from a different school,"  
Ranma nodded, "I agree,"  
"How would you like to go about doing this?" Tsuki ask, "When and where would you like the tournament to take place? Have you decided on whether it would be a closed tournament or an open tournament where anyone could enter?" "How the heck should I know?" Ranma shrugged, "I'm just flying by the seat of my pants,"  
"Would you like me to coordinate it?" Tsuki asked, "It's not that hard. I can make a few phone calls and have something set up,"  
"Hm, that sounds like a good idea," Ranma said.

Shinji and Ranma arrived back at home on Monday at around noontime, landing safely in the backyard.  
Once again, Ranma ended up having to catch Shinji since he was unable to figure out how to land correctly from a high altitude.  
"Don't worry, Shinji," Ranma said, putting Shinji down, "You'll get the hang of it. After a couple of weeks or so, just start jumping off of high places like our second storyblusdow and you'll start understanding the mechanics and science behind a safe landing,"  
"Um, o-okay," Shinji said, his knees a bit weak from the fall.  
"Man, nanban mirror rocks," Ranma smirked, "There's no better and easier way to travel,"  
Shinji was silent for a moment. Something had occurred to him during his stay in the Hyusa residence. "I just noticed something," Shinji said, "If we could instantly come home through the use of the nanban mirror, then why had we stayed up in Hokkaido overnight?"  
Ranma shrugged, "Because, while you slept in late in the guestroom, I went and had some breakfast with Tsuki and Shori. We cleared things out on how we would go about with the tournament,"  
"Really?"  
"Yeah," Ranma nodded, "It'll consist of six of our best students going up to Hokkaido to take place in a tournament two months from now. Tsuki and I have agreed to pool a large sum of money together so that their would be a hundred thousand yen prize to the winner of the tournament,"  
"Wow," Shinji said, "You and Hyusa-san thought of that that morning at breakfast?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, we weeded out some of the details,"  
"Who will be in the tournament?" Shinji asked, "What six students from our school will be entering?"  
Shinji wondered how well he would do in the tournament. He might have a great chance at making it to the finals. If Katsuhito and Otomo were considered the most talented students from the school, then the prize was in the bag. He could give the prize money to Oki, whose family was in need of some money, their restaurant not bringing in enough customers to pay off for even the overhead of keeping it running.  
Ranma smirked, "I dunno who's gonna be in there, but you won't,"  
"W-what?" Shinji was surprised.  
"Remember what I said a while back? You're not allowed to enter tournaments," he said, "If you enter, you'll win. It's no fair to the others. How would you like it if I enter the tournament?"  
Shinji opened his mouth but said nothing for a short while.  
"Y'see?" Ranma smirked, "The tournament is about who gets first place, not second place. Considering the training you've undergone, you have an obscenely large advantage over everyone. The only people that can beat you would be probably Tsuki, who won't be in the tournament as well,"  
"Oh,"  
Ranma smirked, "Besides, what do you care. There's gonna be a rookie boxing tournament coming up really soon. Ippo mentioned about it,"  
"Wait, I can enter a boxing tournament?" Shinji asked, "But you said-"  
"That you can't enter tournaments, right," Ranma said, "However, that pertains to martial arts, not boxing,"  
"Oh,"  
Ranma looked at his watch, "Look, it's almost noon. Shouldn't you and Emiko be heading off to the gym?"  
Shinji looked at his watch, "Yeah, you're right,"  
"Get going," Ranma said, "And while you're there, tell Oki that I'd like to speak with him today if he's free,"  
"Oki? How come you need to talk to him?" Shinji asked.  
"Although he's one of the newest students, I plan on having him enter the tournament,"  
Ranma entered the kitchen where he spotted Luna drinking some juice, reading a newspaper.  
"Man, you're really interested in reading about current events in this world, huh?" he asked.  
Luna nodded, "Uh huh. This is an interesting world. There's a huge contrast between this world and my own,"  
Ranma looked in the fridge and grabbed himself a drink, walking over to the table and sitting down in an empty seat by Luna.  
"You just got back?" she asked.  
Ranma nodded, "Yep,"  
"So, how went the trip to Hokkaido?" Luna asked, "You mentioned something about setting up a tournament with a martial arts school up there. Did I go okay?"  
Ranma nodded, "It went fine. Our schools will be having a tournament two months from now. Six students from this school will be going up to Hokkaido to challenge that school. The winner wins a hundred thousand yen, a large sum of money even by this world's standard,"  
"I'm just curious," she commented, "Setting up a tournament seems very out-of-  
the-blue, even for you,"  
"What are you getting at?" Ranma smirked. He couldn't help but admire just how observant Luna was. She probably knew him better than anyone else. The only person that knew him as well was Akane.  
Luna leaned back in her seat, "Well, you usually do what you do because there's some hidden agenda. I'm curious as to what your agenda is behind this so-called tournament,"  
Ranma smirked, "Perhaps it's because I was bored,"  
"Well, you have been doing some rather odd things as of late and it does seem like you've been wanting to occupy your time. However, this seems different,"  
"Ya really wanna know?" Ranma asked.  
Luna shrugged, "If you want to tell me sure. It doesn't matter to me,"  
Ranma smiled, "Okay, then I won't tell you. I'll let it eat away at you,"  
"Hey," she narrowed her eyes.  
Ranma laughed. Luna laughed as well.  
"If you really wanna know, I'll tell ya," Ranma said, "Oki's family has been having problems as of late with their family business,"  
"Yes, I'm aware of that," Luna said, "Oki mentioned something about that on the way home from Kourakuen Hall on Saturday,"  
"Oki doesn't have much free time," Ranma said, "Every day, he comes here, learns some martial arts at the dojo, and then he immediately heads off to help out at the family restaurant. After the gym, he goes right back to work,"  
"Poor kid," Luna said sadly, "He's only sixteen. He shouldn't be working so hard,"  
Ranma nodded, "I agree. He's a strong person to be able to do this, but he's also strong enough that he would never ask for help, even from Shinji,"  
Luna nodded, "That's true. Oki has a very strong character,"  
"A while back, I found out the real reason why Oki took on boxing," Ranma said, "When I went and visited Ippo at the gym a few months back,"  
"Isn't it to become a better fighter?" Luna asked. She knew a good deal about Oki since he was always around during the morning and they usually spoke to one another for a short time before he would head off to morning class in the dojo. However, she didn't seem to know as much about him than Ranma or Shinji.  
Ranma said, "Well, that's one of the reasons. Oki became a boxer because he knows it pays well, provided he wins and makes a name for himself. That I'm not worried about. He's good enough to probably take a few titles in his weight class,"  
"So what seems to be the problem?" she asked.  
"Well, I guess you don't understand how boxing works," Ranma said, "You need to make a name for yourself before you'll start earning a lot of money. However, it'll be a long time before that happens,"  
"Oh,"  
"Since Oki never asks for help, I plan on helping him out," Ranma smirked, "However, he probably won't realized that he's being helped. I'm going to start training him in hopes that he could win the tournament and win the prize money. The prize money isn't some form of charity for him so he will hafta earn it, which is probably something he would rather do anyway. However, I plan to help train him along the way until the tournament,"  
"Do you think Oki has a chance of winning?" Luna asked, "I've seen him training in the dojo. He seems to be very disciplined and bright. However, he is also very young and probably inexperienced,"  
Ranma nodded, "Oki has the potential to win it, but this is only if he is willing to train for it. I'm gonna offer him the training. Whether or not he takes it is up to him,"  
"That's really nice of you," Luna commented.  
"Hey, training Oki would be no problem," Ranma shrugged, "I'm already privately training Shinji and Asuka. Training Oki was well wouldn't be a problem,"  
Luna smiled, a warm feeling in her heart, "You're a good person, Ranma,"  
"Thanks," Ranma grinned, "You're right. I am a good person,"  
"A bit lacking in modesty, but a good person nonetheless," Luna smirked.  
Ranma got up out of his seat, wanting to get something else to eat. The drink he had wasn't good enough.  
However, as he did so, a small piece of paper fell out of his pocket and fell down by the Luna's feet. Luna noticed this and picked it up to hand it back to him. However, as she did so, she took a glance at it. Written on the paper was the name 'Shori' with a phone number scribbled underneath. The feminine and curvy handwriting was anything but Ranma's handwriting.  
She looked at Ranma and narrowed her eyes.  
Ranma had this nervous look on his face.  
"Oh oh,"  
Emiko giggled after she realized Shinji was okay after having tripped over his own feet. The two of them had been on their way to the gym and Shinji had tripped for the second time already.  
"Man, it feels like I'm wearing a vest all over again," Shinji commented, getting back up to his feet, "Even though I'm not wearing it anymore, I'm totally unused to it,"  
"How long do you think it'll be before you get used to not having a vest on?" she asked.  
"Ranma says about two weeks," Shinji answered, "I guess that's understandable. That's around the amount of time it took before I started getting used to wearing a vest. I guess that's the amount of time it would take to getting unused to it,"  
Emiko asked, "Is your training going to change?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I'll probably be spending most of my time doing jump-  
rope. It'll help but balance, something I'm in serious need of getting used to right now,"  
"You'll be doing only jump-rope?" she asked, hopeful.  
"Yeah," Shinji said, "We can jump-rope together like we usually do,"  
Emiko smiled.  
She had no problems with that whatsoever.

"That's Stumble? He looks different,"  
"It looks like he lost weight,"  
"He doesn't look smooth anymore,"  
Several people made similar comments along those lines when they saw Shinji and Emiko enter the gym. The two of them immediately walked off in to the corner of the gym where they proceeded to do stretching exercises.  
"My muscles feel stiff," Shinji commented as he was sitting on the floor, his legs spread and locked, his elbow resting on the ground.  
"You need help?" she asked, surprised that she would be asking that. He never needed help stretching before.  
"Um, okay," he said, "I guess I'm gonna need help since my muscles are probably tightening back up."  
Emiko got up and walked over to where Shinji was stretching and pressed her hands against Shinji's back and pressed forward. As she did so, she couldn't help but notice how tight and muscular it was.  
She blushed as she noticed she was touching Shinji. They had rarely ever had any form of physical contact. The last time she could remember was when Shinji had his arm around her when they were in the movies. That was a long time ago.  
After he was done stretching, he got back up to his feet. He couldn't help but wonder why his back felt a bit hot, as if Emiko's touch made it so. He dismissed the feeling and continued on stretching.  
"You ready?" he asked, extended a hand to help her up.  
Emiko paused for a moment before she took his hand and allowed him to help her back up too her feet.  
One back up, they headed out of the door to do some jogging.  
Wednesday rolled around.  
Shinji waited in front of 'D Cluster' for Sumi for the first class of the day. He didn't have to wait long before she showed up at around ten minutes before class was expected to start.  
"G'morning, Shinji," Sumi smiled warmly.  
"Morning," he said.  
Sumi regarded Shinji for a moment which seemed to make him feel rather self-  
conscious. "You look different," she commented. She didn't bother making the comment that he looked smaller than what she last remembered. She had figured that he could had lost some weight but it was probably physically impossible to lose so much weight in such a short time. Shinji nodded, "Yeah, I removed a vest I used to wear,"  
"A vest? What vest? She asked. "I don't think many people was aware of it but I used to wear a weighted vest," Shinji answered, "I was wearing it for the past five months. I basically took it off for the first time at the pro test,"  
Sumi scratched her head, "You've been wearing a weighted vest? All this time?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
"I-I never knew about that," she said, a bid sad, "H-how come you never told me about it?" Shinji scratched the back of his head, "Um, I really dunno. I guess I never mentioned about it because I basically forgot about it myself,"  
"You've been wearing a vest for a whole five months?" Sumi was surprised, "You never took it off?"  
"Well, I only took it off for things like when I took a shower and bath and such," Shinji said, "But other than that, I haven't removed my vest at all,"  
"Wow, that's pretty amazing," she was impressed.  
Shinji blushed slightly, "Not that amazing,"  
"Still. Anyway, how was your vacation?" she asked, "How went your pro test? I would've liked to had come, but you know where I was,"  
"You were visiting home," he finished for her, "Mine was fine. How about yours?"  
Sumi smiled, "It was fine. It was nice to be able to just relax and lounge around for a few days without having to worry about doing anything. It's nice being unproductive for a change.  
Shinji laughed, "I've never heard of something like that before, but I guess you have a point,"  
Sumi giggled.  
"So how was your pro test?" she asked, "I'm sure you did fine,"  
Shinji gave a slight smile, "Um, more or less. Actually, I was supposed to have failed,"  
Sumi was sincerely shocked, "Failed? Really? But you're so good at taking tests,"  
Shinji smiled slightly, "I guess, but a pro test is different than a regular school test. I had to have a match against someone and do well in the match to pass. Because I took off my vest for the first time, I was unused to it and ended up losing,"  
"So how did you pass?" she asked. "My trainer, Ippo, came by and helped me out," he said, "I ended up having to fight him in a match. I lost to him, but I guess I did well enough that I passed anyway,"  
"Is your trainer a really good boxer?" she asked, "He looks very strong,"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. He's really good. I think he went easy on me. However, I have no complaints because I passed and I'm happy about it,"  
"Well, I'm glad you did well," she smiled, "Does that mean you're a pro boxer now?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
"What happens after that?" she asked, "You mentioned something about a debut match when you become pro,"  
"Yeah," he answered, "However, an opponent hasn't be decided yet for me. I don't think I'll know for another few days. By then, it'll probably be for a match a month or so from now,"  
"Can I come watch?" she asked, showing signs of interest.  
Shinji smiled, "Of course. Um, actually, I would've asked you that if you didn't ask me first,"  
Sumi smiled. Perhaps their relationship was going somewhere. She still didn't know if they were officially seeing one another, but it seemed like it.  
It would only be a matter of time before they would be dating.

Shinji and Sumi emerged from 'D Cluster' at around noon and was surprised to see Priss on her motorcycle just off to the side of the entrance. The fact that she was actually waiting while on her bike on one of the walkways where only people were allowed to walk didn't seem to bother her. She had her helmet on which seemed to do a good job in hiding her face and thus not needing to worry about being asked for autographs. "I-it's Priss," Sumi's eyes widened, instantly recognizing her.  
Shinji didn't seem all that excited, at least no where near as excited to Sumi. He was excited to see Priss as, say, seeing Akane. He was so used to seeing them all the time that there was no reason to be excited. "Yo," Shinji walked up to her.  
"H-hello, Priss," Sumi smiled happily.  
"Hey, guys," Priss grinned, lifting the visor of her helmet up.  
Shinji glance over toward Sumi and noticed how happy she looked.  
I guess Priss really is quite a sight to behold to a fan of h was Shinji though.  
He regarded Priss for a moment. She was definitely a good role model for young people. She didn't smoke, do drugs, or drank. She seemed to have a bit of a speed fetish but that was it. She was also very pretty. The fact that she was famous and it hadn't gone to her head was something Shinji definitely admired about her.  
Priss blushed when she noticed Shinji regarding her for much longer than she wanted. It made her self-conscious.  
"W-what?" she said, trying to compose herself.  
"So, what brings you here?" he asked.  
Priss smirked as she reached in to her pocket and took out two tickets, "I'm doing a concert in Yokohama. I came by to see if you two wanted to come along,"  
Shinji took the tickets and looked at them. After a moment, he handed them to Sumi, "No thanks. My ears are still ringing for that last concert I went to. Sumi, you can have them,"  
Priss nearly fell off her bike. That freaking idiot! She was trying to help Shinji out.  
"Can I speak with you alone?" Priss asked, hopping off her bike.  
"Um, okay," he said.  
Shinji followed Priss off to the side and out of earshot of Sumi.  
"Are you stupid?" Priss placed a hand on Shinji's shoulder as they walked away. She paused for a moment to give it a good squeeze. That's Shinji's shoulder, Priss thought. Damn, Shinji's a lot more well-built than I thought. Anyway, that's not what I need to worry about.  
"Stupid? Whatcha mean?" Shinji was confused.  
"I'm here to help you out," Priss smirked, "Coming to my concert can be used as a date. You and Sumi can go get some dinner or something and then come to my concert afterwards,"  
Shinji's eyes widened, "Wow, I never thought of that,"  
Priss smirked, "Well now you know. The concert is next week and you can use it as an excuse to ask Sumi out,"  
"I guess I could do that," Shinji said.  
He walked off to talk to Sumi.  
Priss regarded Shinji for a moment. She smiled as she watched Sumi hand him one of the tickets and then head off to meet up with one of her friends on the other side of campus.  
After Sumi disappeared around the corner, Shinji turned back around and came up to Priss.  
"So, what did she say?" she asked.  
Shinji smiled happily, "She said yes,"  
"Y'see? Now you've got a legitimate reason to go on a date," she smiled, happy that Shinji was happy.  
"Thanks, I really appreciate your help," Shinji said, "You're great,"  
Priss smirked, "No problem. So, where are you headed?"  
Shinji looked at his watch, "Well, I have around fifteen minutes before I'm supposed to be at the gym,"  
"You need a lift?" she asked, jerking a thumb toward her bike.  
Shinji shook his head, "No thanks. I wanna walk there. Since I took off the vest, I haven't gotten used to it. Making myself walk instead of taking a ride is a good way of forcing my body to get used to it,"  
"I guess you have a point," she said.  
Priss glanced off toward the parking lot where she caught sight of a familiar looking car.  
"Well I'll be damned," Priss said, heading toward where the car was parked. "What is it?" Shinji followed her curiously.  
The two of the stopped in front of a sleek-looking McLaren F1.  
"I raced against this car a few months ago," Priss commented, taking a glance in through the window.  
"This car's been here for a few months," Shinji commented, "I think it's abandoned,"  
Shinji regarded the car for a moment. His eyes widened as he realized that he actually recognized it.  
"Oh my god!" he shouted, startling Priss.  
"What?"  
"This is Tou's car!" Shinji said, "I recognize it!"  
"Tou's car? Who's that?" she asked.  
"Sumi's boyfriend," he said.  
Priss shot Shinji a quick look.  
"I mean Sumi's ex-boyfriend," Shinji corrected, "This is his car,"  
"He abandoned this car?" Priss asked.  
Shinji shook his head, "No. He's in jail now. I kinda makes sense on why I thought this car has been abandoned,"  
"I recognize this car," Priss commented, continuing to look in through the windows.  
"How so?"  
"I raced the owner of this car a while back," she said, "I remember the day also. I raced him after I dropped you off on campus so you could meet up with Asuka and Rei,"  
"I don't remember seeing this car or you racing it," Shinji said, scratching his head.  
Priss shrugged, "You were long gone when I raced it. Man, what a small world. I ended up racing Sumi's ex-boyfriend, huh? He wasn't all that bad a driver either. He really knew how to push his car to the limit,"  
"Of course, it probably had nothing on your bike, huh?" Shinji smirked.  
Priss nodded, "Yep,"  
She looked in through the window as Shinji stood by and observed her.  
"This is a good car and must be highly customized," Priss said, "Heck, he's even got two seats in this,"  
"Huh?"  
"This particular model of a McLaren F1 is a one-seater," Priss commented, "The seat is located in the middle of the car. It usually has a seat located in the middle with two seats located to the side and slightly behind the middle one. However, looking at this one, they driver seat is located on the right side like a normal car,"  
She gestured for Shinji to approached her. Shinji did that.  
"Yes?" he asked.  
"Do me a favor and break the window," she tapped the glass, "I wanna see what's under the hood,"  
"What? But that's considered breaking in!" Shinji's eyes widened, "I-I can't do that!"  
Priss smirked, "C'mon, quit being such a good guy. If this is that guy's car and he's in jail, it doesn't matter what happens to this car anyway,"  
"But-"  
"Also, if he's been in jail for a while, this car's gonna be determined as abandoned and hauled away," Priss said, "A little bit of damage wouldn't hurt,"  
"But-"  
"Just do it!" Priss snapped at him. Shinji did as he was told, too scared to stand his ground against someone like Priss. He jammed his fingers right through the glass of the driver side window. This surprised Priss because he didn't make a fist and punched it but rather used his fingers.  
That was something Ranma usually did.  
Priss reached in through the opening in the glass and opened the door from the inside. As she did so, she looked at the glass and noticed the thickness.  
Oh man, this car had bulletproof glass, Priss thought. Shinji just broke through it like it was it was nothing. She didn't bother to mention it.  
Entering the car, she checked the interior for a minute and noticed how the how well-equipped it was, sporting digital display screen for almost every aspect of the car. After a moment of looking around, she found the lever she was looking for and popped the hood.  
Shinji walked over to the front of the car to lift the hood up for Priss. However, he noticed that the hood wasn't up. He had heard the hood pop though.  
Priss laughed as she got out of the car, "The engine is located in the back of this car, not the front. The front is basically the trunk for the car,"  
Shinji blushed. He followed Priss to the back of the car where the lifted the back. Priss whistled as she saw the sight of the engine. "Not bad," she smirked "A V-24 with Quad-turbine intake. It's even got dual hyper-chargers with turbine blowout valves,"  
"Is that considered impressive?" Shinji gave a meek look, "I have no idea what you're saying,"  
Priss smiled, "This baby can probably get around twenty five hundred or so horsepower. That's very impressive even for a car as old as this. In this day and age, the average civilian cars have around five hundred horsepower. This one is over five times that,"  
"Wow," Shinji said. He knew horsepower and knew that twenty five hundred horsepower were that of what drag racers sported in this day and age.  
Priss grinned as she closed the back and walked around and climbed in to the car.  
Shinji watched curiously as she busted open the steering column with a well placed open-palm strike around the bottom if it. "What are you doing?" he asked.  
Priss fumbled with a couple of the wires and pulled two of them loos he red and a blue one. She touched the open ends against one another. Suddenly, the car came to life, its engine roaring.  
Shinji's eyes widened as he realized what Priss just did. She just hotwired the car.  
"W-what are you doing?" he gasped, looking around, hoping no one was around to see what they were doing, no, what Priss was doing.  
Priss smirked.  
"Hop in, we're going for a joyride,"

new stuff 10/11

Emiko was startled when a loud car came to a screeching halt right by sidewalk in front of her. Although she didn't know much about how cars worked in this world, she knew that that was considered bad driving.  
She narrowed her eyes toward the driver side window. However, her visage softened when she recognized Priss as she lowered the window and grinned at her.  
"Oh, Priss, what are you doing here?" Emiko asked.  
The door on the other side of the car opened and out emerged Shinji.  
"Does that answer your question?" Priss jerked a thumb toward him, "I came to drop him off,"  
"Is this yours?" she asked, "I thought you didn't like cars,"  
"I don't," she said, "But I'm just making an exception for now,"  
Shinji ran around the car and fell to his hands and knees. He looked visibly shaken.  
"Are you okay?" Emiko asked.  
"Y-yeah," he said after a moment.  
"So, how's my driving?" Priss smirked, knowing she scared the heck out of him. She couldn't help but admire how Shinji seemed to be always willing to ride with her even though he knew she drove like a speed demon.  
"Like a woman's," Shinji commented.  
"I'll take that as a compliment," Priss smirked, "Anyway, you two have fun. The cops are hot on my tale and it'll only be a matter of time before they catch up,"  
Priss popped the car in to first gear and spun the tires out for a few seconds before it caught and she sped off with paint-pealing speed, the engine roaring loudly.  
"Man, it's even scarier being in a car with her than being on a bike with her," Shinji said, getting up to his feet. He took a moment to take several deep breaths to calm his racing heart.  
"How come you get in to the car with her if you know she drives crazy?" Emiko asked.  
Shinji scratched his head, "That's what I should ask myself. You'd figure I'd learn from my mistakes,"  
Emiko giggled. Shinji laughed a second later.  
"C'mon, let's head on in," he said.

"Yo," Oki said.  
"Hey, Oki," Shinji smiled.  
Oki had come upstairs to check up on his friends. Since they would not be sparring for a while, not until Shinji got used to his body, they didn't see each other all that much in the gym, Oki still continuing to train downstairs while Shinji upstairs.  
"Hey, just the person I wanted to see," Shinji said.  
Oki gave Shinji an odd look, "Um, you're cool and I like ya and all, but I don't like you like that,"  
Shinji blushed, "Not like that!"  
Oki laughed. Shinji ended up laughing when he realized Oki was only joking around.  
"So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Oki asked.  
"Ranma wanted me to speak to you," Shinji said, "He wanted me to tell you that he wants to train you personally,"  
"R-really?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I forgot to mention it the other day. Anyway, on Sunday, Ranma and I went to Hokkaido and visited the 'Hyusa School of Martial Arts',"  
"Really? What happened?"  
"Well, I ended up fighting against Katsuhito and Otomo," Shinji grinned, "I beat them both,"  
"Cool," Oki smirked, "You avenged us,"  
Shinji gave a sheepish smile, "Um, yeah. Anyway, we, Ranma actually, established a time and place for a tournament between the schools. It's just under two months from now,"  
"R-really?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. The winner will win a grand prize of a hundred thousand yen,"  
"Really? That's amazing!" Oki's eyes widened. Man, if I win that tournament, he thought, it could really help my parents out. After a moment, his visage sombered, "Y-you'll be entering as well?"  
Shinji shook his head, "No. Ranma isn't allowing me to enter,"  
"Why not? If you enter, it's in the bag for ya," Oki commented.  
"Ranma says if I did, it'd be no fair to all the other challengers," Shinji said, "He says that because of the training he's been giving me, I've got big advantage going in to the tournament and he doesn't what that,"  
Oki smirked, "Well, that is kinda true. You were a tad bit on the powerful side even while you were wearing the vest. Now that you're not wearing the vest, I'd hate to wonder just how powerful you are,"  
Shinji shrugged, "I have no idea. Anyway, the point I'm getting at is that Ranma wants to start training you personally. He nor I will be entering the tournament. He wants to train you in hopes that you can win the tournament,"  
"M-me? Why me? I just started training at the dojo," Oki said. Shinji nodded, "I think he sees potential in you and wants to help you out,"  
"W-wow," Oki said, "I dunno what to say,"  
"It seems Ranma's willing to help you win the tournament, but only if you're willing to work for it,"  
Shinji stopped to look in to Linna's gym.  
"Is there a reason why we're here?" Emiko asked curiously. The gym was no where near on the way home. She had followed him, figuring he had merely wanted to try a new place to eat instead of stopping at the usual deli.  
Shinji said, "Well, I was talking to Ranma a couple of days before and he said that he would tell me how much the vest weighs if I can hit him,"  
"So how much does it weigh?" she asked, very curious.  
Shinji smirked, "If I was able to hit Ranma, then I would know,"  
"Oh," Emiko said, "I guess that's easier said than done,"  
He nodded, "That's for sure. However, I thought up a good idea to finding out,"  
"Wouldn't it be easier to just put it on a scale and find out?" she asked.  
Shinji shook his head, "That isn't possible. Ranma said that scales don't go up that high. That means the vest weighs at least two hundred and fifty pounds since that's the upper limit of most scales,"  
"The vest is more than two hundred and fifty pounds?" Emiko's eyes widened.  
Shinji nodded, "I assume so,"  
"So what do you plan on doing?" she asked.  
"There's a buncha weights in this gym," Shinji said, "I figure I'd just go about lifting weights until I lift a weigh that's similar to the weight of the vest. That way, I'll have a rough idea of how much the vest weighs,"  
"How come you didn't try that out before, back at Makunouchi Gym?" she asked, "There's weights there. How come you wait until after we're done with the workout before trying out?"  
She couldn't help but wonder if Shinji had purposely waited until now. It gave him a good reason to visit Linna.  
"Well, I didn't think of doing so until after we left the gym," he said, "And besides, we were training together and I didn't wanna waste time doing that when I should be training at getting used to doing jump-rope all over again,"  
"I guess you have a point there," she shrugged.  
Together, the two of them headed in to the gym.  
"Um, hey, Miri," Shinji greeted the girl behind the counter. He couldn't help but wonder how many hours that girl worked. She seemed to be in there whenever he showed up. She had mentioned that she only worked there part-time which stuck Shinji as equally odd.  
"Hi, Shinji," the counter girl said. She noticed Emiko standing next to him, "Um, hi,"  
Emiko didn't bother to greet to girl. Instead, she gave the girl a rather scrutinizing look.  
"Linna's here," the girl said, "She'll be done with her class in around fifteen minutes,"  
"Okay," he said, "However, I was just curious if I can just use a few of the weights for a bit,"  
"I don't see why not," the girl said. Shinji and Emiko walked by and on to the gym floor where all the weightlifting equipment were. Although it was the first Emiko had been in that gym, she noticed how similar it looked to the weightlifting area of Makunouchi Gym.  
They walked over to where the dumbbell rack was.  
"So what are you going to do, work your way up the rack until you reach a weight that's similar to the vest?" she asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
Emiko glanced around and noticed several people watching the two of them. Actually, they seemed to be paying attention mostly to Shinji, as if waiting to see what he would do next.  
Shinji looked over toward the far end of the rack where a pair of two hundred and fifty pound dumbbells lay resting. He walked over there and picked the dumbbell up. He curled it a couple of time. Even he was surprised that he was able to do so.  
"Damn," he said. "Something the matter?" she asked.  
"I'm just surprised," he said, "I tried lifting this weight a while back and couldn't lift it. Now, it seems light. I can't believe the vest was bogging me down that much. However, what's strange is that I can lift this much considering the vest didn't really bog down my arm strength or such. The vest was sleeveless so my arms should'tve been affected by the weight,"  
"Um, perhaps most of your energy went to keeping the weight of the vest stabilized," Emiko suggested, "That's the best guess I can come up with,"  
"I guess," he shrugged.  
"So, does it feel like the same weight as that vest?" she asked, gesturing toward the weight Shinji seemed to be carrying easily. Shinji shook his head, "No. The vest is heavier,"  
"Well, how else can you tell?" Emiko asked, "That's the heaviest weight there is in here,"  
Shinji placed the dumbbell back on the rack and scratched his head, "That's true," He looked around and spotted an open squat rack with an Olympic bar with two forty-five pound plates on each side. The bar was resting on a peg on the rack that was at around waist level. The person that last used it probably used it for shoulder shrugs, an exercise that helped develop the trapezius muscles.  
Shinji walked over to the barbell, Emiko following closely behind.  
He looked at the barbell and did the weight calculation in his head.  
"Hm, this is only two hundred and twenty-five pounds," he said, "That means it's lighter than that dumbbell over there,"  
He looked around and saw a small rack that contained several plates. He walked over and grabbed two forty-five pound plates, one with each hand. He then walked over to the barbell and placed those plate on.  
He glanced toward Emiko and noticed her trying to do the math in her head. He felt a bit sad as he noticed her struggling to figure out the weight. It seemed like Emiko's lack of an education on her world made her very slow at doing simple things like doing math in her head. It made him want to hug her and say that it was all right, that he didn't care if she had trouble with simple things like doing math in her head.  
"That's, um, three hundred and fifteen pounds," she said after a good minute.  
Shinji smiled warmly, "That's right,"  
Emiko felt happy, as if she had accomplished a very hard task. She wasn't all that smart so something like figuring out the weight of the barbell at hand meant quite a bit to her. Shinji's acknowledgement that she was right made it all the more worthwhile.  
"Do you think it's the same weight?" she asked.  
"Let's find out," he said.  
Shinji brought grabbed a hold of the bar and brought out way from the rack, holding it in his hands. He curled it a few times before he placed it back down.  
"Hm, now this is more like it," Shinji said, "The weight's much closer to this,"  
"So is the vest heavier or lighter?" she asked.  
"The vest is still heavier, but probably not by much," he said, "Man, the vest weights more than three hundred pounds? This is crazy. I thought it was only around a hundred or so pounds, not over three hundred. When the heck did I get this strong?"  
Emiko smirked, "Well, you've been constantly getting stronger. I think you simply don't realize it,"  
Shinji thought for a moment. He then said, "Well, I guess you have a point. Let's try and figure out how much the vest weighs,"  
Shinji grabbed another two forty-five pounds from the weight rack and placed them on the bar. He took his time sliding the weight on the bar, knowing that Emiko was trying to do the math in her head.  
"That's four hundred and five pounds, right?" she asked after a full minute of thinking.  
Shinji smiled warmly, "That's right,"  
"Um, don't you think that's a bit on the heavy side?" she asked. Heavy to her was anything more than eighty pounds. This was over five times what she deemed heavy by her standards.  
Shinji grinned, "Yeah, this is definitely considered heavy. However, the way I think of it, if the vest weighed somewhere over three hundred pounds and I was able to lift over two hundred pounds while wearing that vest, I should be able to lift significantly more than that when I'm not wearing a vest,"  
"Well, you do have a point there, but you have no idea how strong you are," she said, a bit concerned, "You might get hurt,"  
Shinji nodded, "Well, yeah, but I guess that's a risk I'm gonna hafta take to find out how strong I am,"  
Emiko's eyes widened as she saw Shinji walk over and take two additional forty-five pound plates from the weight rack. Once again, he place them on the barbell.  
"T-that's four hundred and n-ninety five pounds!" Emiko did the math.  
"Right," Shinji said, "If my calculation's right, this would be around the same weight I was working with before now that I'm no longer wearing a vest," "W-what do you plan on doing with all that weight?" Emiko asked.  
"I'm gonna try and do a clean and jerk," he answered.  
Before Emiko could protest, Shinji grabbed the barbell and placed it by the flood by his feet, taking care to keep his back straight as not to hurt his back.  
"Y-you're going to try and clean and jerk this much weight?" Emiko's eyes widened.  
Shinji nodded, "Yep,"  
"But what about finding out the weight of the vest? I thought you were going to compare weights," Emiko said.  
"I'm content with finding out that the vest was somewhere within the vicinity of three hundred pounds," he said, "It's probably around three-fifty but I'm not going to lose any sleep not knowing the exact weight,"  
Emiko was silent. She would have liked to have known the exact weight of the vest.  
"You should step back while I try out this exercise," Shinji said, "I don't want you to get hurt,"  
Emiko blushed, "O-okay,"  
She stepped back and watched as Shinji crouched down by the barbell, assuming a perfect starting position for the clean and jerk, his hands at shoulder length apart, his back straight.  
He took several deep breaths, readying himself for the lift. Several gym patrons stopped to see what Shinji was up to. From where they stood, it looked like a deadlift, an exercises that consisted of simply lifting the weight up and assuming a standing position, arms remaining straight so that the barbell moved no higher than mid-thigh level. It was an exercise that mostly worked out the lower back and legs.  
"That little guy's gonna deadlift that much weight?" one patron asked his friend, "That's almost five hundred pounds,"  
"That's an insane amount of weight," the friend commented, "I've gotta see if he can do it,"  
They were shocked when they realized that Shinji didn't do a deadlift. In on smooth motion, Shinji lifted the weight up and had the barbell come to rest right at his shoulder level.  
"Holy shit!" the patron said, "He just did a 'clean' with that weight!"  
"Y-you don't think he's going to-" the friend began.  
Shinji then powered the weight up over his head and locked his arms. He held it in that position for a couple of seconds before he brought it back down to the floor in a slow and deliberate manner.  
"H-how was it?" Emiko asked, a bit surprised that Shinji had managed to lift so much weight.  
Shinji scratched his head, "I think something's wrong with me,"  
"What do you mean?" she asked.  
"That wasn't heavy at all,"  
The two of them were on their way home from Linna's gym. They had only spent a short time at the gym before they decided to call it quits and head on home. It seemed like it was time wasted trying to find out Shinji's strength.  
"Um," Shinji began.  
"Yes?" Emiko looked toward him.  
"Can you show me how to jump high?" he asked from out of the blue.  
Emiko was rather taken aback from such a question. She smirked. The best thing to do was to let him find out on his own. "Follow me," she smiled.  
She jumped up in to the air and landed on the outer wall surrounding house. She then jumped up and landed on a nearby roof of a house.  
Although Shinji was used to seeing Ranma jumping so high with relative ease, seeing someone other than Ranma doing so was surprising.  
"C'mon, why don't you try and hop up here," she waved him up.  
"Um, okay, I'll try," he said.  
Shinji bent at the knees, trying to gauge the amount of strength needed to jump high enough to land on the roof. He took a moment, wondering if he should jump on the outer wall first and then up to the roof or attempt to jump on to the roof initially. He choose the latter over the former.  
He jumped up. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to know the strength of his own legs as he suddenly found himself sailing clear over the roof and crashed.  
"Oh my god!" he shouted.  
Luckily for him, he twisted in the air and managed to grab the side of the chimney which prevented from sailing right over the entire house. Unfortunately, he didn't get a firm grasp of the chimney as his grip slipped. The sudden change in trajectory led Shinji to land on the down-slope of the other side of the roof where he tumbled and ended up falling down the other side.  
"Shinji!" Emiko called out, running to the other side of the roof and looking over the edge, worried that the fall would had hurt him. It was the rooftop of a second story house, afterall.  
She looked over the end where she saw Shinji gripping the gutter with one hand, his body swinging back and forth as he hung suspended in the air by his fingertips, his back facing the wall of the house.  
"Are you okay?" she asked, kneeling by the edge of the roof and gazing down at the top of his head.  
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," he said nervously, looking up toward her. Shinji suddenly found himself weightless as the gutter suddenly broke under his weight. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to react in time and take Ranma's training about landing safely in to consideration.  
He ended landing on his side against the ground, hard.  
"Ow," he groaned. "Are you okay?" she asked.  
"Yeah, but my pride is kinda hurt," he gave a sheepish look.  
Emiko giggled.

Shinji rubbed at his head vigorously that night.  
He and Ranma were in the dojo.  
"Ow ow ow," he said, wincing in pain.  
Ranma laughed, "Sooner or later, you're gonna get used to jumping high,"  
"This is the second time I hit my head against the rafters," Shinji said, "It's nothing to laugh at. It really hurts. It's like you're purposely attacking me with certain moves, as if to goad me in to jumping over them,"  
"You know the saying 'It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Then it's hilarious'," Ranma continued to laugh.  
"Ha ha," Shinji said sarcastically.  
"So, have you talked to Oki yet?" Ranma changed the subject.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. He said he's interested in learning from you. I think he wants to begin right away,"  
"Okay," Ranma said, "When is he free?"  
"Not too sure," Shinji said, "I think since he's a bit free in the morning before his parent's restaurant opens and would most likely wanna learn then,"  
"That sounds like a good idea," Ranma said, "He's a busy kid and I figure that'd be a good time as well,"  
Shinji smirked, "Oh yeah, I think I figured out how much the vest weighs,"  
"Oh?"  
"It's somewhere around three hundred pounds, perhaps around three-fifty," Shinji said, "I stopped by Linna's gym on the way home and began lifting weights and worked my way up to three-fifteen. I realized it was around the same weight as the vest,"  
Ranma smirked, "Ah, I see you took the easy way of finding out the vest's weight,"  
"Easy way? What do you mean by that?" Shinji asked.  
"It's much easier to find out through doing that than to go about trying to hit me," Ranma grinned, "I see how it is, you've already realized that it's easier to go about that approach than to actually try and hit me,"  
"Why you!" Shinji said, not liking to be taunted.  
Ranma kicked at Shinji as the young man dashed in.  
Shinji tried to dodge it, jumping over Ranma's kick. Unfortunately, he ended up jumping too hit and hit his head against the rafters of the dojo ceiling. He fell back to the floor rubbing his head vigorously again.  
Ranma burst out laughing.  
Shinji immediately realized Ranma was distracted laughing. Gritting his teeth as he fought back the pain to seize the opportunity, Shinji quickly got to his feet and kicked toward his face.  
Ranma laughed as he leaned back, the kick missing him easily. Ranma then executed a counter-attack landing and open-palm strike in Shinji's chest as he was recovering from the whiffed kick.  
Shinji ended up flying across the length of the dojo where he crashed in to the wall on one end and fell to the floor, unconscious.  
"Nice try, Shinji,"

Over the course of the past few days, Shinji spent his time in the usual manner. Before he left of school, he said good morning to Oki whom had indeed taken to being trained by Ranma early in the morning before his family restaurant opened.  
School when in usual manner, consisting mostly of Shinji paying not all that much attention in class and talking to Sumi while in-between them.  
After school, Shinji met up with Emiko at the gym where they did their training. It usually consisted of jump-rope, jogging, and speed bag. Shinji found himself struggling to do all of those, as if he was starting all over again, as if he had first started wearing a vest. However, it was evident that he was improving at an exponential rate, getting used to his unburdened body very quickly.  
After the gym, on the way to the deli, Shinji practiced figuring out the science behind jumping high. Although it usually resulted him over jumping the roof, it gave him a chance to practice landing safely when he did. Unfortunately, much like gauging the strength of his jumping, landing safely was something he still needed to work on.  
When they got home, Shinji taught an afternoon class and then went on to training Emiko. Although Emiko still had problems defeating Asuka, she no longer lost to her, that one loss seeming more like a fluke than anything else.  
After he was finished with training, he went on to kicking a pole with his shins. He usually did that until dinner rolled around. After dinner, he would spar against Ranma before finally calling it a day and spending his remaining time studying before finally falling asleep.

The weekend rolled around.  
Shinji paced back and forth for a few minutes in front of Sumi's dorm apartment as Sumi emerged from the building.  
It was only six in the evening. Yokohama Stadium was only around twenty miles south of MegaTokyo. Since there was a train that dropped them off right by the stadium, that gave them plenty of time to have themselves a nice dinner, and be at Priss' concert which started at ten.  
"Did you wait long?" Sumi smiled.  
"N-not at all," he said nervously, "You ready?"  
"If I wasn't I wouldn't be out here," she smirked.  
Shinji said nothing. A stupid question deserved a stupid answer.  
Sumi giggled.  
"C'mon, let's get going," she said, "The train arrives in fifteen minutes and it'd be a shame if we need to catch a later one.  
The thirty minute train ride to Yokohama went by relatively quick, the two of them passing the time talking to one another. They talked about nothing in general for the first half of the trip until they stumbled upon something the both of them found rather noteworthy when talking about music.  
"Of all the kinds of music I like, I tend to like piano instrumentals songs," she said, "That's because I play the piano. You remember that grand piano you saw at my house? When I hear a piano song I like, I usually try and play it by ear whenever I'm home,"  
"How long have you been taking piano?" he asked.  
"Since I was eight," she replied, "I'm pretty good at it too. I played a piano solo in several concertos around Kyoto. I used to play the piano in the Japanese Harmonic Orchestra,"  
Shinji's eyes widened, "Wow. I've heard them before. They're awesome,"  
Sumi smirked, "For all we know, you could have seen me at one of the concertos,"  
He stopped as he thought for a moment, "I dunno. Perhaps. When did you used to play for them?"  
"Six years ago," she said, "I was the youngest pianist to be in the Japanese Harmonic Orchestra. However, I only played for a year though,"  
"Hm, six years ago? Well, that means I never saw you," he said, "Heck, I wasn't even on this world then,"  
"Huh?"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, nevermind,"  
"You've been saying weird things I noticed," she commented, "Stuff about other worlds and fighting Angels and piloting robots, what do they mean?"  
Shinji regarded Sumi for a moment. She remembered those comments from back then? She was supposed to dismiss them since he usually said 'nevermind' when he realized it had been a slip of the tongue, that it was sometimes better not to say anything at all.  
"Um, there's no need to worry about that," he said after a moment.  
"C'mon, you can tell me,"  
Shinji thought about it for a moment, about telling her his past. She'll just think I'm insane if I told her the truth, he thought. But then again, I would like her to know. I mean if she does become my girlfriend, then she has a right to know about my past, right? But then again, is she my girlfriend? How can I tell if that's so? Ranma says that it just happens, which I have no idea what that means.  
"If it bothers you, then there's no need to tell me," she said, feeling a bit hurt that he couldn't confide in her. They knew each other very well and secrets shouldn't be kept between them, right?  
"Um, I-I'll tell you another time," he gave a small smile.  
"Okay," she said, satisfied with that answer.  
"Um, it's cool that you play the piano," Shinji tried to change the subject, "I play the cello,"  
"R-really?"  
He nodded, "Yeah. This was a long time ago, when I was fourteen or so. I used to play to relax and take my mind off things,"  
"Wow, I never knew that," she said, "We should jam one day,"  
Shinji blushed, "J-jam?" It sounded like some sexual term.  
"You know, play the piano and cello one day," she said, "I haven't played an instrument with someone in a while,"  
"Oh," he gave a chuckle, "I guess there's no harm in that. I've never done that before but I'm willing to give it a try,"  
Sumi smiled, "Cool. How about we try it next week, next Saturday?"  
"Um, okay," he said, "Wait, I dunno how we can do it,"  
"What do you mean?" she asked.  
"I don't have a cello anymore," he answered, "It was destroyed a long time ago,"  
"Destroyed? How?" she asked.  
Shinji was silent for several moment. There was no harm in revealing a small part of his past. "Um, I didn't used to live in MegaTokyo," he said, "I started living here when I was fifteen. My old city burned to the ground,"  
"Your old city was destroyed?" she wondered, "What city is that? The only city that had ever been destroyed was Nerima and that was decades ago,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Um, it was a small town so it's understandable that it wouldn't be in the records or mention in books,"  
He found it better to lie. He believed it wouldn't be necessary to tell her that the city where he lived, Tokyo-3, had been destroy because Seele had wanted to conceal its attempt at cause Third Impact after Ranma's and Ryoga's presence on that world had put a damper on their plans.  
"What about your family and such?" she asked, wondering if she was pressing in to volatile territory, "If your town was destroyed, did they make it out okay?" she asked.  
Shinji became silent.  
"Um, I'm sorry. I shouldn'tve asked that question," she said.  
"It's okay," he said, "My mom died when I was young. I don't really remember her. My father...he died as well,"  
Yeah, because I was the one that pulled the trigger, Shinji thought. But then again, if I didn't kill him first, he would've killed me. What kinda father is that?  
"I'm sorry to hear that," she said sincerely.  
Shinji shrugged, "It happened awhile ago. It's all in the past,"  
"Um, o-okay," she said.  
She realized that if Shinji wanted to talk about his past, then he would when he felt like it.

new stuff 10/15

Shinji and Sumi found themselves walking the streets of the Yokohama area at a at around seven, half an hour later than expected. Having missed the stop that dropped them off virtually right in front of Yokohama stadium, the two of them had to get off at the next stop and wait for the next train to take them back to their intended stop.  
"So, where would you like to eat?" Sumi asked.  
Shinji stopped in mid-stride as he looked across the street and saw a fast food restaurant.  
"What, you want to eat there?" she was surprised, "I thought you adhere to a strict diet,"  
"Nah, I was just thinking of something," he commented, "Didja know that it's been over five months since I've eaten at a fast food place?" "Really?" she was surprised. Five months was a long time to have gone without eating any form of fast food. But then again, perhaps it wasn't all that hard. She hadn't eaten fast food in a couple of months, she also adhering to a diet. Of course, she didn't have the discipline to eating such a strict diet.  
He nodded, "Yeah. And not even that. I haven't even eaten stuff like pizza or drank any soda,"  
"What kind of food have you been eating all this time?" she asked.  
"Most of the time?" he shrugged, "Healthy stuff,"  
Sumi laughed.  
"I break from my usual eating habits every here and there but never up to the point of eating fast food," he said, "However, considering I've been on a very strict diet for basically five months, something like eating at such a place is probably welcomed,"  
Sumi shrugged, "Well, I guess. Everyone has craving and such,"  
"I guess," he said, "Well, where would you like to eat?"  
"I asked you first," she smirked.  
"Hm, how about some sushi?" he asked, "I remember us passing a sushi restaurant a few blocks back,"  
"You like sushi?" she asked.  
He nodded, "Yeah. It tastes good and its pretty good for you," He didn't bother to mention that it was high in protein which help promote muscle growth since that would make him sound like a know-it-all.  
Sumi checked her purse to see if she had enough money. Sushi was very expensive and she didn't know if she brought enough.  
"What are you doing?" he asked.  
"I'm just checking to see if I have enough money," she stated.  
Shinji didn't even hesitate with a reply.  
"Oh, don't worry about it. It's my treat,"  
Priss was getting dressed when she heard a knock on her door.  
She knew that it must be Shinji and Sumi. She had left specific instructions that she was not to be disturbed by staff members while she got ready to do her concert.  
"C'min," she said after quickly getting dressed.  
Shinji and Sumi entered.  
"Hey, guys," Priss smiled, a bit glad to see them. It was nice to see a close friend like Shinji. Sure, she was friends with staff members, but it was different. "Sorry we're late," Shinji said, "We kinda lost track of time,"  
Priss smirked, "Heh, I guess when in good company, one does,"  
Shinji and Sumi both blushed. Priss had been tempted to ask how their dinner was since she knew they came here early to eat before the concert. She was curious as to their relationship and how much it had progressed. "So, Ranma's getting a car, huh?" Priss smirked.  
Shinji looked confused, "Huh? He is?"  
"Oh, you didn't know? Ranma's getting himself a car," Priss had said from out of the blue. She had called the house at around six, shortly after Shinji had left to go to Sumi's place, and had talked to Akane.  
Akane had told her of Ranma's rather whimsical decision to buy a car.  
"When did he decide this?" Shinji asked, a bit surprised to be hearing such news. It was rather a pleasant surprise also. Priss said, "It seems he decided this sometime today. Perhaps he didn't mention it to ya,"  
"I never knew this," Shinji said, "What brought this up?"  
She smirked, "Remember that car I hotwired and stole?"  
"Um, yeah,"  
"After I dropped you off at the gym, I swung by the house," Priss stated, "Ranma was around and saw it and it got him thinking about getting a car. I guess he's been thinking about getting one for quite some time. I guess he finally decided to go through with it and get one after he saw me pulling up in that car,"  
"You stole a car?" Sumi asked, shocked that someone like Priss knew how to do something like that. But then again, Priss wasn't considered one of the squeaky-  
clean rock superstars. It had been rumored that she had thousands of unpaid tickets but that was nothing compared to stealing a car, a crime that was considered grand larceny.  
Priss smirked, "Yeah, more or less,"  
"Whatever happened to the car after you dropped me off?" Shinji asked curiously. He had noticed that the car was no longer located in the campus parking lot.  
"It's in my garage," she said, "Since the car's considered abandoned, it'd eventually get hauled away to some government garage where it would then be auctioned off. I don't care all that much for the government so I figured I'd help myself. I figure I'd take it apart and salvage the engine. That car has a very good engine and it puts out quite a bit of horsepower,"  
"What would you use it for?" he asked, "To replace the engine for your bike? But that's a car engine,"  
Priss smirked, "For your information, my bike puts out more power. However, having a powerful car engine could come in handy. Who knows, I might give Ranma that engine to put in his car," Shinji shrugged, "Perhaps,"  
"Man, you stole a car? I never knew you did stuff like that," Sumi commented.  
There were a lot of things people didn't know about her. She used to wear a hardsuit several years ago, helped Ranma bring down Genom Corporation, helped fight against the Angels that attacked this world, too many things to list.  
"Ever hear of a group called Knight Sabers?" Priss smirked. "No," Sumi shook her head.  
"Nevermind," Priss laughed. There was no need to tell anyone about that aspect of her life anyway. Ranma didn't talk about his accomplishments. Shinji didn't talk about his accomplishments. Why should she be any different?  
"Why'd you steal a car?" Sumi asked.  
Priss thought for a moment. She remembered Shinji mentioning something about Sumi's ex-boyfriend driving that car. However, since he was said to be in jail, then it didn't really matter if she took it for a joyride. She shrugged, "I guess I was curious. Anyway, Shinji, perhaps you might wanna ask Ranma about the details about him getting a car,"  
"I'll do that," he nodded.  
Priss looked at her watch.  
"All right, The concert's about to start. Let's all get going,"  
Shinji and Sumi entered Priss' dressing room sometime after midnight. Priss wasn't there and had told them that she would be there in around ten minutes, needing that time to sign a few autographs to the lucky fans that had backstage passes, most of them won on radio stations and such.  
"Wow, that was such an awesome concert," Sumi commented, "I can't believe it's totally different from the last one we went to,"  
"I wonder if all of her concerts are different," he said.  
Sumi nodded, "Yes, especially this one. She did a whole new score of songs. She's doing songs from her new album. It's cool how she mixed in her new and old songs in this concert,"  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess she needs to come out with new songs and such. Songs get old real fast,"  
"Shinji, you should be more tactful. You don't say something like that," Sumi said, looking around, grateful that Priss wasn't around to hear. He gave an odd look, "But it's true,"  
The two of them indulged in conversation, Sumi taking seat on the couch in the room. "Man, this looks like the same couch in Priss' other dressing room," Sumi commented, noticing the texture and how it felt soft to the touch.  
Shinji nodded, "Oh yeah, that is,"  
"Really?"  
"Yeah," he replied, "She brings that couch on tour with her. She told me she sometimes sleeps on the couch for a short time before the start of her concert and finds this couch really comfortable. Also, she considers this couch good luck for some odd reason,"  
"Wow, how did you know?" Sumi asked. She never knew Priss did something like that, sleeping before the start of her concert and considering an object good luck. But then again, Priss also said she stole a car and there was no reason for her to lie about it either.  
Shinji said, "She told me. I don't remember when though but I remember her saying that,"  
"You must be really good friends," Sumi said, "It's so cool to be friends with someone so famous like Priss,"  
"What are you talking about? You're friends with her too," he said.  
"No, it's different," she shook her head, "I'm friends with her because of you. You, on the other hand, are friends with her and do stuff with her like that Friday dinner thing you always have that you mentioned about," "Hey, would you like to come?" he asked, "To our Friday dinner?"  
"R-really? I can come?" she was shocked to be invited, "I thought it was some kinda tradition done among a small circle of friends,"  
Shinji shook his head, "Nah. It's more of a gathering with eating than an actual dinner. It's all about us getting together and talking about what we've done over the week since some of us only see each other only on Friday,"  
"Who goes to this dinner?" she asked curious.  
"Friends," he said, wondering what names to name that Sumi might recognize, "Priss for instance. There's also Ritsuko Akagi and Lisa Kurinagi,"  
"Those two go there also?" Sumi's eyes are wide, "They're the two leading authorities in this world's computer technology. If it weren't for them and their accomplishments, this world's computers would be five years, if not more, behind where it is now,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Well, I guess. But I don't see them like that,"  
To Shinji, they were just like Priss, good friends.  
"Lisa was the person that single-handedly revealed Genom Corporation's attempt to control all of the world's boomers," she said.  
"Yeah, I guess so," he nodded, "But that was a while ago,"  
Actually, Ranma was the one since he was the one that got her the OMS chip that Genom had been working on that would allow it to control all the boomers ever created. If one thought about it, Ranma had single-handedly wiped out the use of boomers from this world which brought the world back ten years in technology. Luckily, Ritsuko came along to help forward the technology to where it was supposed to had there been no boomers to begin with.  
"So, would you like to go?" he asked. It would be nice. He could introduce her to everyone. Only a few people knew about Sumi anyway. It would be nice that they knew about her and let them know that he liked her. Of course, he would tell them after she was gone. It'd be too embarrassing if she was there when they found that out. Besides, she probably didn't even know that he liked her.  
Sumi smiled, "I'd love to,"  
The door opened and in entered Priss.  
"Hey, guys," Priss smiled, "Sorry you had to wait. So, did you guys enjoy the concert?"  
"It was fun," Shinji said, "But-"  
"But what?" Priss asked curiously.  
"Have you ever thought of lowering the volume of those giant speakers?" he asked, "It's really deafening being so close to the stage,"  
Priss fell to the floor.

new stuff 19/18

Shinji was very nervous as he and Sumi stepped of the train together. It was probably around two in the morning, a bit early for a Saturday night, actually, a Sunday morning, but the two of them were rather tired. Priss' concert had ended sometime after midnight but they had spent some time with Priss having a late night meal before deciding it was best that they be going.  
Priss would have offered to have Shinji and Sumi driven home in a limo but she had decided not to, not wanting to shorten the time they would spend together had they not taken the train.  
Shinji thought about the advice Priss gave him when Sumi had left them alone to go to the ladies room. She had told Shinji that tonight would be the opportunity for him to kiss Sumi goodbye, the catalyst that would progress their relationship.  
Shinji glanced down toward Sumi's hand as they walked along. Now would be a good time to hold her hand. However, how does one go about holding a girl's hand? Does he ask her? Does he take it within his own? Or was he supposed to hold his hand out for her to take?  
What do I do, Shinji thought. Damn, I wish I knew. "W-would you like to hold hands?" he asked nervously. He didn't know if that was the right approach. However, it was an approach nonetheless. That was what counted.  
Sumi paused for a moment, a bit surprised by the question. She had been wondering the same thing too. She had been busy wondering when or if Shinji was ever going to take her hand. However, she was surprised that he would ask, expecting him to just hold his hand out so she could take it.  
"Sure," she smiled, blushing slightly.  
She reached out and took hold of Shinji's hand.  
Shinji tensed as he felt Sumi's hand in his. Her hand was small and soft to the touch. It felt delicate and supple and made him wonder how ugly his hand felt. His was probably rough and calloused and clammy. Perhaps he shouldn't be holding hands.  
He tensed even more when Sumi took a step to the side and closer to him, her other hand coming to rest on his forearm.  
"I had a great time," she said in a soft voice, leaning her head against his shoulder.  
"Um, er, same here," he stammered, "It was fun,"  
The two of them continued walking, hand-in-hand. The two of them felt very self-conscious of themselves, Shinji more than Sumi. Perhaps is was because this was the first time he ever really held a girl's hand. Sure, he had held hands with Akane and Sylia and Rei and such, but that was because they grabbed his hand and was most likely half-dragging him somewhere. The two of them continued in silence, perhaps enjoying each other's company and not feeling it necessary to fill in that silence with conversation. It was rather dark out and there was a bit of a chill in the air. However, despite that rather light attire, neither of them seemed to be all that cold. It's too bad the distance from the train station to Sumi's apartment was close. He would had liked to walk hand-in-hand with her longer. But then again, perhaps he could. Perhaps he could ask if she wanted to take a walk through the park or something. Sure, it was two in the morning, but the moon was out and it was considered romantic. He had already gotten over the hurtle of holding Sumi's hand, should he go from broke and try and take her for a romantic walk?  
"Um, y-you wanna take a stroll through the park?" he asked, surprised at finding himself saying that.  
Sumi smiled, "Sure,"  
Shinji and Sumi continued to hold each other's hand as they walked through the park. They talked about nothing in general. Sumi's questions seemed to steer clear of asking about Shinji's past. However, she believed he would open up to her one day. They continued to talk as they circled the small lake within the park, the process taking around twenty minutes. As they were on their way down the same trail to exit the park, they caught sight of three guys walking in their directy ou They were dressed in dark clothes and seemed to have an aura that screamed 'thug'.  
Holding Sumi's hand, Shinji felt her grip tighten as she became a bit nervous. Afterall, it was late out and who knew who those people were. However, it was only momentary as it seemed like Sumi realized that Shinji was there besides her. "There's nothing to worry about," Shinji said in a reassuring voice. Not all people were bad people. However, it seemed like anyone that ever approached him that he didn't know seem to have some form of bad intentions. Why was that?  
"Heh, you two seemed to be in the right place at the right time," one man said with a smirk.  
Shinji moved his arm slightly so that Sumi would be slightly behind him and he was between her and the three guys. He was angry. All he wanted to do was enjoy a nice walk with Sumi. "Oh, why is that?" Shinji asked in annoyance.  
"Well, it seems my friend here's got a stomach and will need surgery," the man jerked a thumb toward his friend, "However, we don't have the money to help pay for his surgery. We're glad you came along. That way, perhaps you can donate us some money so we can help pay for his surgery,"  
"Sorry, but we don't have any money," Shinji lied.  
Sumi became very nervous.  
"I don't think you heard me correctly," the man said, "Our friend here really needs money and we would be very grateful if you'd donate us some money,"  
"I don't think you heard me correctly," Shinji replied defiantly, "We don't have any money,"  
"Are you talking back to me?" the man sneered.  
"No," Shinji said, "However, like I mentioned, we don't have any money,"  
"For some reason, we don't believe you," the man smirked.  
Shinji shrugged, "So? Tough luck," His patience was running out. Much like how he hated people using martial arts for an intent of malice, he hated people trying to use numbers to intimidate others. He had no job and made due with what little money Ranma gave him for teaching classes. Why couldn't others work for their money as well?  
"Look, I don't wanna fight," Shinji said, pissed off that he had to release his hold of Sumi's hand to hold his hands up defensively.  
"Tough for you," one of the friends said.  
Shinji didn't bother to wait for them to attack. He reached in to his pocket and pulled out his keys, throwing it at the face of one of his assailants, hitting him in the face.  
As the man held his face with his hands, Shinji dashed in and pushed the guy hard, sending him tumbling to the ground. He was without his vest and there was no telling how strong his punch was. He didn't want to accidentally misjudge his strength and end up caving some guy's face in and killing him. That would be really bad.  
Before the other two could react, Shinji shoved the second one, sending him tumbling backwards a good distance away.  
The third one, seeing two of his friends taken out so quickly, punched toward Shinji. Unfortunately for the man, Shinji nodded his head, allowing the man's fist to hit the top of his head, the impact breaking two of the man's fingers.  
The man screamed as he gripped his damaged hand.  
Shinji shoved the third guy away hard, sending him tumbling to the ground a good distance away.  
"You fuck!" the first man sneered, getting back up to his feet, his face bloody from the key teeth that bit in to his face. He pulled out a knife, "Let's see you try and play hero now!"  
"He's got a knife!" Sumi gasped, pointing.  
Shinji reacted instinctively, picking up his keys and throwing it at the man's hand that held the knife. The impact of the keys breaking a few fingers and causing the man to drop his knife.  
He dashed in as the man gripped at his hand in pain and shoved the guy again, sending him tumbling on the ground a good distance away. Shinji took the opportunity again to pick up the dropped knife as well as his keys.  
Shinji looked at the knife. He had no experience with using a knife and it was basically more useless to him than his keys. Pinching the blade between his index finger and thumb, he easily snapped the blade off the handle. The did it a couple of times to the blade itself, breaking it in three places before he threw the broken pieces again.  
By now, the second man was getting back up to his feet and was reaching in to his pocket. Whether it was a knife or a gun, Shinji didn't care to find out as he threw his keys at the man, hitting him in the stomach, causing the man to bend forward at the waist and looking down toward the ground from the impact.  
Shinji dashed in and pressed his hand on the back of the man's head, causing the man to lose his balance and fall down to his stomach. He then bend down and grabbed the man's arm, the arm that was in the pocket, and twisted it and brought it back and brought it to rest on the man's back.  
Shinji smirked as he looked at the man's hands and saw that the man was holding a stun gun, a weapon with two props that was meant to send an incapacitating electrical charge through an opponent upon contact.  
He grabbed the stun gun from the man's hand and pressed weapon to the man's back, pressing a small trigger button that activated it. The man's body jerked several times as a hundred thousand of volts of electricity coursed through his body.  
Unfortunately for Shinji, since he had been holding the man as he zapped him, he ended up getting electrocuted as well. However, it didn't seem to bother him all that much. It kinda tingled.  
Shinji continuously zapped the guy for a good ten seconds, mistaking the spasms for the man's attempt at wringing free. When he brought the stun gun away, the man lay on the ground, twitching and in a state of unconsciousness. Satisfied that the man was incapacitated, he turned his attention toward the two guys and caught sight of them as both of them were running away, terrified with how sadistic Shinji was to shock someone for so long and not wanting to risk being shocked as well.  
He turned toward Sumi, "Are you okay? "Me? I'm fine," she said, surprised that he was asking her first, "How about you? A-are you okay?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine,"

Shinji and Sumi were heading back to Sumi's apartment. Surprisingly, the two of them were holding hands once again.  
"That was kinda exciting," she commented.  
Shinji gave Sumi an odd look, "Exciting?"  
She smiled warmly, "Yeah. Watching you fight is kinda like...poetry in motion,"  
"Poetry in motion?" Shinji asked. He didn't know whether to be flattered or insulted. He never considered his fighting style to be poetic. Actually, anything but that.  
Sumi shrugged, "It's hard to describe. I don't know anything about fighting, but I do know that the way you fight is very unique,"  
Shinji gave a meek laugh, "Oh, that. Well, I guess it's all because of Ranma,"  
"Ranma? Your sensei? What's he have to do with it?" she asked, a bit confused.  
He said, "Well, he's been teaching me martial arts for quite some time. However, I didn't want to fight like him. I guess over time, not wanting to fight like him, I kinda developed my own techniques and a unique way of doing things,"  
Sumi giggled, "I guess unique is definitely a good way to describe it. I've never seen someone allow themselves to get hit just so their opponent will hurt their head punching the top of your head," Shinji gave a slight laugh, "I guess you have a point there,"  
"Do you always do that?" she asked.  
He nodded, "Yeah. For instance, remember that time in the club when I was attacked? I punched a did the same thing. I also punched the guy in the hand to make him unable to make a fist,"  
"Is it a really good style you use?" she asked, wondering if it would be cool if she learned something like that.  
Shinji shrugged, "A good style? I dunno. However, if it beats my opponent, then I consider it good,"  
The two of them arrived at Sumi's place.  
"You know what I find nice?" she asked.  
"What?"  
"I feel very safe when I'm with you," she said, "I was nervous when those guys approached us, but when you said that everything would be fine, it was very reassuring,"  
Shinji blushed, "Um, thanks. Um, that's because I wouldn't let anything happen to you,"  
Sumi blushed, "Thanks,"  
He turned his attention toward Sumi's building, "Well, um, here we are,"  
"Here we are," she said.  
"Um, I had a great time," he began, releasing his hand from Sumi's so that he could turn to face her.  
"Same here," she smiled warmly, "Although those three guys kind of interrupted our, um, stroll together, thank goodness nothing bad happened,"  
"Yeah," he said nervously.  
God, what am I supposed to do, Shinji thought. Now's the time to kiss her but I dunno how to go about doing it? Do I ask her? Do I just lean in for the kiss? If she closes her eyes as I do so, then that should be the sign. However, what do I do if she doesn't give the sign? What would I do if she just looks as me all confused? It'd be so embarrassing.  
"Well, um, I guess this is where we say goodbye," he said after a long pause.  
Sumi nodded reluctantly. She had such a fun time with Shinji and felt a bit sad that they had to depart. "Um, b-before I go," he started, "I-I was wondering...that is, if you feel up to it..."  
Sumi found herself holding her breath. "W-would you like to go out?" he said, "Um, I mean, yeah, we're out already, b-but I mean, um, y'know...go out...like on a date,"  
She smiled warmly, "Wasn't this a what it was? That's what I considered it, a date,"  
"I-it was?" Shinji was surprised, "B-but I thought, um...oh man, I dunno what to say in a situation like that,"  
She giggled. She could tell Shinji was visibly nervous.  
"Um, I-I didn't realize it was a date," he said, "I-I thought I was supposed to ask you out on a date officially or something,"  
She smiled. Wasn't that a bit old fashioned? But then again, Shinji seemed like an old fashioned person, doing things usually done decades ago. For instance, something like the courtesy of bowing to a person upon introduction had been long forgotten on this world a long time ago. Shinji really thought that for a date to be a date, he was supposed to have asked her out on a date? That was very cute and endearing in her eyes.  
"Well, if this isn't what you consider a date, I'm dying to find out what your idea of a date is," she smiled, wondering if he would pick up on the small hint she dropped him.  
"If you consider this a date, t-then I guess, by all means, it is," he said, scratching the back of his head, "I would consider this one if you consider it,"  
"Well, I consider this one," she smiled.  
"Um, since this is a d-date, can we end it on that note?" he asked.  
Sumi was a bit confused with that question at first. However, when she realized that he meant a kiss, she welcomed it.  
"Sure," she closed her eyes, allowing herself to be kissed. Although she probably would had kissed him if he didn't make a move tonight, she believed someone old-fashioned like Shinji would had wanted it the other way around, to be the one making the move.  
Shinji's eyes widened. That was the cue, for him to kiss her. Within a nanosecond, several thoughts crossed his minds. What if he was a bad kisser? What if they bumped heads? Was he supposed to tilt his head to the left? Or was it to the right? Was he supposed to close his eyes as well? Or was he to keep his open? What does he do with his hands? Where do they go? Should he hug her as he did so or perhaps take hold of her hands? Or perhaps was he supposed to place his hand up and around her arms? And what about the kiss? Is he supposed to open his mouth or keep it closed? How as he supposed to breath?  
Unfortunately, he found himself unable to move, too many questions passing through his mind for him to take action, too scared that he would mess up and do something wrong.  
Sumi found herself feeling like an idiot as she realized she was waiting too long for a kiss. What the heck was taking him so long? A girl should not have to keep her eye closed for more than one second before she was to be kissed. More than a second had elapsed and she hadn't felt Shinji's lips on hers. She opened her eyes and noticed a rather panicked look on his face. Realizing that she had to take matters in to her own hands, she took a step forward and leaned forward, closing her eyes as she brought her lips on to Shinji's.  
Shinji's eyes widened as he suddenly realized he was being kissed. He felt a tingling sensation envelop his body. Was it the kiss that was doing that?  
His powerful legs felt weak, as if unable to sustain his own bodyweight. His heart started beating rapidly, faster than ever before. His heart didn't even beat faster than when he found himself having to step in to the ring for the very first time to spar against Ippo. His heart didn't even beat faster than when he found himself face-to-face with an Angel while in Unit-01 for the very first time. Shinji noticed Sumi's lips were soft and warm as they pressed against his.  
Before he even realized it, his body seemed to move on its own accord, his arms coming up and around to hold the small of her back, pulling her body close to his own as he returned the kiss. His eyes instinctively closed which seemed to heighten his sense of touch as he felt the heat generating from being within such close proximity to Sumi.  
The kiss lasted a little over one second. Shinji and Sumi found themselves opening their eyes at the same time as they broke from their kiss, gazing in to each others eyes.  
The stood there for a moment, a bit disoriented about what was going on before they managed to collect themselves.  
Sumi smiled warmly, "Well, I guess it's best I get going now,"  
"U-uh huh," he said, feeling physically drained. His body felt very weak, especially his legs.  
"I'll see you in class on Monday," she smiled.  
"S-sure," he said.  
"Bye," she said, turning around and heading off in to her dorm apartment.  
Shinji stood there for a few minutes before he was able to realize what had happened.  
He and Sumi had just kissed for the very first time.  
"Yes!"

Shinji had a big smile on his face as he entered his room. He had been smiling all the way back home. He didn't even stop smiling when he found out that he didn't have his keys and had to head all the way back to the park to retrieve them, finding it right by where the unconscious man still lay.  
He wandered around in his room, stubbing his toe against his futon bed. However, it didn't seem to bother him, him too happy to let something as painful as a stubbed toe bother him.  
He climbed in to his bed, not even bothering to remove his clothes. He was tired and wanted to get some sleep. He would worry about showering the next day. As he sat there, waiting for sleep to bestow him, he wondered what Emiko would say about his progress. She knew he liked her so she should be happy for him that he managed to finally kiss her.  
He glanced over toward Emiko's bed where Emiko lay sleeping soundly, contemplating on waking her up and telling her the good news. However, after a moment of thought, he chose against it. It was best to let her sleep. Perhaps he would tell her tomorrow. But then again, should he tell her? Do gentlemen kiss and tell? Perhaps it was considered courteous not to tell anyone that he kissed Sumi. Hm, maybe that would be for the better, he thought. It's probably better not to tell anyone. I don't want it to seem like I'm bragging or nothing.  
Eyes adjusted to the darkness, Shinji noticed the Emiko was partially uncovered in her bed, the blanket around her lower half uncovered. It also didn't help that Emiko slept in her panties and he could see her cotton white panties glowing in the moonlight shining in through the open window.  
Hm, Emiko never twists and turns when she sleeps, Shinji thought. I wonder what's got her twisting and turning when she was trying to sleep.  
Shinji blushed as he found himself staring too long at Emiko's cute little bottom.  
Cute little bottom? When did I ever considered her to have a cute little bottom? Sure, she was cute but I never saw her like that!  
Shinji shook his head and banished the thoughts from his mind. He shouldn't be thinking such thoughts. He liked Sumi, not Emiko. Emiko was his friend and he shouldn't be thinking of friends like that.  
Realizing that knowing that her bottom was exposed and free for him to look at with his perverted eyes, Shinji realized that he would not get any sleep. He needed to let the blankets cover Emiko correctly. It would be two-fold. It would help him to sleep and would keep Emiko from being cold at night.  
He got out of his bed and walked over to Emiko's bed and took hold of the blanket, gently sliding it over so that it covered her completely.  
Before he walked back and got in to his bed, he couldn't help but glance at Emiko's angelic face. She looked very pretty when she was sleeping. The moonlight helped make her look even prettier.  
His gaze lingered on Emiko's lips. He had kissed Sumi and it was great. He wondered what it would be like to kiss...  
What the hell am I thinking, Shinji thought, bonking himself in the head. What the hell's wrong with me? Where the heck did that come from? Why did I even think something like that?  
Shaking the thoughts from his head, Shinji went back in to his bed and promptly went to sleep.

Shinji was at the book store early in the morning the next day. Since it was Sunday, he figured he would use his day off to go to the bookstore and see if there were any new boxing magazines out. To his surprise, he recognized a familiar-looking woman that was by the magazine rack. It didn't even take him a minute to realize it was Melinda, the gorgeous supermodel that seemed to frequent that bookstore. Once again, she was wearing a pair of sunglasses that hid her crystal-blue trademark eyes.  
Shinji chose to say nothing. They were mere acquaintances and there was no need, right? Wait, he was supposed to talk to at least one random girl a day, to help him get over his shyness with talking to girls.  
"Hey," he said, wondering if he should had greeted her more formally.  
Melinda glanced over. She recognized Shinji.  
"Morning," she smiled.  
Shinji glanced down at the magazine in her hands, "Another photo shoot you're checking out?"  
She nodded, "Yes,"  
"How come you don't just get a subscription?" he suggested, "It'll not only save you money, but it'll also save you the trouble of having to come here to pick up the magazine,"  
Melinda smirked, "That's true, but it also prevents me from meeting interesting people like yourself,"  
She was always good at flirting and it showed. The fact that it didn't seem to work on Ranma made her wonder if her abilities to flirt were becoming rusty.  
Shinji shrugged, "Um, okay. If you say so,"  
He went about leafing through the new boxing magazines. Melinda regarded Shinji for a moment, a bit surprised that he so casually dismissed her flirtation. It was rather refreshing, a change of scenery to what she was used to, that usually getting what she wanted without really having to do much more than flirting for a short time.  
Shinji picked up a music magazine that emphasized on classical music and composers. This surprised Melinda when she noticed it.  
A guy that picked up boxing and classical music magazines at the same time? That was rather odd.  
"You're in to classical music?" she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. However, I dunno what this world's 'classical' songs are so I figured I'd brush up,"  
"Huh?" she asked, "This world's 'classical' songs?"  
"Nevermind," he said, "I was merely interested in classical music,"  
"How come?"  
"I play the cello," he said, "And I wanna look for a couple of songs that had the cello and piano in it,"  
He hadn't forgotten about Sumi being able to play the piano. She had mentioned about them playing their respective instrument on Saturday and he wanted to be prepared.  
"You play the cello?" Melinda said, "I play the cello as well,"  
Melinda found herself a bit surprised that Shinji showed some sign interest toward her now, after she mentioned that she played the cello.  
"You play?" Shinji asked, "How long've you been playing?"  
"Since I was six," she said proudly, "I stopped taking lessons due to lack of time when I turned fifteen and started doing modeling. However, I continue to practice it to this day. How about you?"  
"I used to play," he said, "I haven't played since I was fourteen. I didn't play for as long as you though. I usually play it just to relax,"  
Melinda's eyes widened from behind her shades, "Really? You too?"  
"Too? You mean you play to relax?" he asked.  
She nodded, choosing that as an opportunity to take her shades off. She wanted to get a better look at Shinji. Besides, it wasn't as if he wasn't easy on the eyes. Since there weren't many people in the bookstore, there was no real need to keep her shades on for fear of being recognized.  
"My job gets pretty stressful at times," she said, "I usually play it once a day, to relax,"  
"Really? Modeling is stressful?" he was surprised, "I thought all you do is just dress up in some weird clothes and walk down a catwalk, do a few turns, and then head back to the dressing room,"  
Melinda smirked, "I think most people have that misconception of modeling. Anyway, modeling is stressful at times. It's not all fun and games. The most stressful part about the job is keeping one's weight under control. We aren't really allowed to deviate within a pound or two of our usual weight. It makes dieting a real chore,"  
Shinji laughed, "Dieting? I know exactly where you're coming from. I do that as well,"  
Melinda perked an eye toward Shinji. That was a weird approach for a guy to use to get to know her better, to play the sympathy card and pretend that they diet as well to use thwas s something they have in common.  
"What does your diet consist of?" she asked, figuring she could tell if he lying or not based on his answer.  
Shinji went on to describe his diet and giving off minute details such as his average total calorie intake. He also went to mention some weird cravings that he had at certain times, something a person could not come up with unless they really did diet.  
"However, I've gotten used to it so it's no big deal," he shrugged, "Took me awhile to get used but I ended up getting used to it," Melinda was surprised. It seemed like Shinji had been telling the truth, that he was dieting. If he wasn't then he was very well-prepared to answer such a question as the one she asked.  
"Have you ever jammed?" he asked, wanting to change the subject.  
"W-what?"  
"Jammed. Y'know, play cello with someone else," he said.  
"Oh," she giggled, "You mean play in accompaniment with other musicians,"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
"Yes, I've done that," she smiled, wondering why they were talking about something like that in the first place.  
"What's it like?" he asked, figuring it couldn't hurt to ask.  
"It's fun," she smiled, remembering her childhood, "I remember when I used to play with my best friend. She played the violin and we spent quite a bit of time playing songs together,"  
Shinji said, "I've never played cello with someone else before so I really dunno what it's like,"  
"It's really enjoyable,"

Shinji and Melinda walked up to the counter together, each other them carrying their respective magazines, Shinji a few boxing and music magazines, Melinda a lone fashion magazine. Melinda found herself rather at ease around Shinji. They spoke about nothing in general for a good ten minutes, most of it about music and the kinds of music they liked. It turned out the they liked the same kinds of music. "Ooh, it's coming out this Friday," Shinji diverted his attention from their conversation and on to a magazine right by the counter. It was a movie magazine.  
"What coming out Friday?" she asked.  
Shinji pointed toward the magazine, "This movie. It looks really good,"  
"Yes," she commented, "I'm pretty sure I'm going to see that when it comes out. I have no work then,"  
She suddenly realized what she said. She had just left an opening for Shinji to take advantage of to ask her out on a date. It was a perfect opening for him to say something like 'Well, how about we go there together then?'. That would then lead her to have to politely turn him down.  
"Well, if you have no work," Shinji said, "Then you should go see it early in the day. That way, you don't hafta deal with the theatre being all crowded since everyone seems to come out to see new movies during the evening time,"  
Melinda was surprised at the answer. There was no attempt to weasel a date out of her in what he said. Actually, now that she thought about it, Shinji made no such attempts and seemed to have never made any ever since she met him a while back. Perhaps it was her generally cautious nature that led to her believe that most men were like that, usually waiting for an opportunity to ask her out.  
She watched as Shinji paid for his magazines. "Well, it was nice talking to ya," he gave her a polite bow, "Take care,"  
"Um, okay," she said, very surprised. Before Shinji turned around to leave, the cover to a tabloid paper caught his attention. He recognized it as a picture of Priss. It was a rather fuzzy picture of her sitting by someone in the a restaurant. His eyes widened when he recognized the picture Priss was sitting with.  
It was of him!  
"What the?" his eyes widened as he grabbed the tabloid from the rack and read the headlines, "'Priss' new lover: Exclusive story inside'," Melinda glanced past Shinji's shoulder and toward the tabloid in his hands. It only took her a second to recognize Priss' picture. She was very famous and easily recognizable. However, it took her a bit longer before she recognized that the guy pictured sitting by Priss was none other than Shinji.  
"T-that's you!" her eyes widened.  
Shinji pinched the bridge of his nose.  
"This is not happening to me,"

Ranma laughed as he read the tabloid paper.  
"Shinji, my man, I never knew you and Priss had some kinda thing going," he commented.  
"Lies! They're all lies!" Shinji said, blushing beat red. Shinji and Ranma were in the kitchen. Akane and the others weren't around, having gone out shopping. Luna had found it very fun to go shopping ever since she started staying on this world and Akane wasn't one to argue against it. In a sense, the females of the household found it a fun thing to do to pass the time, much like the way men considered invading countries a fun thing to do to pass the time.  
"So, whatcha plan on doing?" Ranma smirked, wondering how Shinji would deal with such a situation. He got himself in to it so he should get himself out.  
"I dunno," Shinji said, "What do you think I should do?"  
Ranma said, "C'mon. You shouldn't keep coming to me for help. You should try and solve this yourself. I'm not gonna be around all the time to help you out,"  
"Huh? Why not?" Shinji asked, "You're probably gonna live until you're three hundred so you won't be going anywhere any time soon,"  
Ranma laughed, "Heh, if you wanna believe that, then go right ahead. However, that still doesn't change the subject that you should try and solve this on your own. If you want my help, I'll be glad to help out. However, I think it's best you at least give it a try and solving this yourself before coming to me for advice,"  
Shinji said, "Well, that's true. However, I haven't a clue where to start,"  
"Well, I guess I can give you advice about that," Ranma shrugged, "What you should first do is go to Priss and talk to her about it. Heh, if you think this is something unexpected in your life, you've got another think coming. Priss is probably gonna be even more surprised than you since she's viewed as as a role model to many young people,"  
"I-I never thought of that," Shinji said. "But then again, this is Priss we're talking about," Ranma shrugged, "She's probably laughing right now as she hears about this from her publicist or producer or whoever that tells her this stuff,"  
"You really think so?" Shinji asked.  
"Only one way to find out. Go see her,"  
Misato and Priss were in the giant and well-furnished living room of Priss' penthouse when Shinji entered. The two of them were sitting across from one another on separate couches, separated by the coffee table between them.  
"Oh, Misato, I didn't know you were here," Shinji said as they all greeted each other.  
Misato held up the tabloid paper and gave a big grin, "I was in the neighborhood when I saw this. I figured I'd bring this to Priss' attention since she's usually very busy and might not be aware of it,"  
"I was surprised when I found this out," Priss commented, taking the tabloid from Misato's hands and glancing at it, "The tabloids sometimes really pisses me off. This is just too much,"  
"What, you mean it's not true?" Misato smirked toward Priss, "You and Shinji make a cute couple, even though you're an old bag lady and should stick with people your own age,"  
"Why you!" Priss sneered, paper crumbling in her hand.  
Misato laughed, holding her hands up defensively, "Hey, I was only joking around. You look no where near as old as you really are,"  
Priss leaned back in her sofa, "Damn straight,"  
"This is really bad, isn't it?" Shinji asked.  
She smirked, "What's so bad about it? What's wrong with us being lovers?"  
"What?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
Priss laughed as well as Misato. After a moment, they realized Priss was just teasing him at his own expense. Before long, he found himself laughing, glad that Priss was taking this lightly.  
"Don't worry about these things," Priss said, gesturing to the paper in her hands, "This little incident will go away,"  
"How?"  
She smiled, "I called them up. I told them to recall the tabloid from the shelves,"  
"Is that going to work?" Misato asked, "Tabloids generate a lot of money and don't seem to really care if you sue them, even for an exuberant amount of money for compensation,"  
Priss nodded, "They do generate a lot of money, true. However, they messed with the wrong person. I found out this morning that the paper's old editor-in-  
chief had resigned and some new guy had taken over. It seems he doesn't know the deal we had,"  
"What kind of deal?" Shinji asked.  
"Have you ever noticed that even though I'm so famous, I should always be in the spotlight for the tabloids?" she asked, "Have you ever noticed that until now, you never saw me in the tabloid?"  
Misato scratched her head, "Yeah. You've got a point. We know you seriously lack morals and you would be perfect for tabloids to rip you apart,"  
"Lack of morals?" Priss narrowed her eyes, "Looks who's talking,"  
"I'll have you know I haven't done anything immoral in a while," Misato stated proudly, "Being rather vulgar with language doesn't constitute as being immoral,"  
"Not if there were children around," Priss smirked.  
Misato found herself unable to argue. Perhaps Priss was right.  
Priss waved a dismissive hand, "Anyway, that's besides the point. The point is is that I had a deal with the tabloid. If they leave me alone, then I leave them alone,"  
"What was the deal?" Shinji asked, "What could you possibly do to them that made them scared to put articles about you on their front page,"  
"My music reaches a huge audience," Priss said proudly, "Several years ago, long before you guys came to this world, they did something similar to what had happened now. I made a song that lampooned their tabloid and it almost made them bankrupt within around one week. I called them up and told them if they don't do it, I'm going to make sure they go outta business,"  
Shinji scratched his head, "That works? You'd think that your music would be considered free publicity for them and would get more people to buy their tabloids,"  
Priss smirked, "That's true. However, it seems to work differently for my fans. They seem to follow what I say. If I tell them not to buy tabloids in my music, then they do just that, not buy tabloids,"  
"Man, that seems like some kinda blackmail," Misato commented, "'Piss me off and I'll have you go out of business',"  
Priss shrugged, "Well...if you wanna see it like that, then yes,"  
Misato laughed, "Priss, you really surprise me. That's something I would do. I guess we're more alike than you think,"  
"I'm not like you!" Priss' almost shouted, "I'm nothing like you,"  
Misato shrugged but continued to smirk, "If you say so,"  
Priss became silent.  
"So I guess this tabloid thing is okay?" Shinji asked.  
Priss nodded, "Yeah. The new editor-in-chief of the tabloid should be well aware of what I did to that company many years ago. If he's smart, he'll have them all removed immediately,"  
"That's good to hear," Shinji sighed in relief, "I was worried that we would be mistaken for lovers,"  
Priss narrowed her eyes, "And just what's wrong with that?"  
Shinji blushed, "N-nothing. I-it's just that, um..."  
Priss burst out laughing, "Shinji, you're so easy to tease it's not funny,"  
"Yeah, you should lighten up," Misato said, getting up and placing a hand on his shoulder, "But then again, that's one of the qualities that make you so cute. I'm sure Priss notices that,"  
Priss blushed, "W-what makes you think that?" Misato laughed. Priss cleared her throat. Shinji gave a meek chuckle.  
"Y'know what's funny?" Priss began, "I wonder what would happen if we just played along,"  
"W-w-what?" Shinji gasped.  
"Heh, I can already imagine what it would look like with Shinji pushing a stroller with our baby," Priss smirked.  
Shinji fell to the floor.  
Misato laughed.  
Priss laughed as well.  
It was so easy teasing him.  
"Can you help me with something?" Shinji asked.  
"What is it?" Priss asked curiously.  
Shinji and Priss were still in Priss' penthouse. Misato was no loner there, having left a short time ago. Since they had the tabloid incident behind them, Shinji figured it was good to ask Priss something since he was already there.  
"Well, there's something I've never done before and I was hoping you can help me out," he said, a bit nervous.  
Priss blushed a deep shade of red. Shinji was a virgin. Did he want to ask her help in becoming more sexually experienced?  
"W-what is it?" she asked, suddenly very aware that she and he were alone in her penthouse. She didn't have to work so she had free time. Shinji didn't usually train on Sundays. That meant the both of them had free time and something like enjoying a sexual interlude was feasible. She and Shinji, together? She wasn't ready.  
"Well, you play the guitar," he stated, "I can play the cello. However, I've never played an instrument with someone. I was wondering if we can play a song together so I can get used to playing with someone else,"  
"Oh!" Priss found herself relieved. What the hell was wrong with her? Why did that pop in to her mind? This was Shinji. She should expect something like that from him. Shinji and Ranma seemed to be the only men in her life that seemed to share no interest in sex, at least not for the time being. "Why, what did you think I was gonna ask?" Shinji scratched his head, wondering what Priss was blushing so much and then relieved all of a sudden.  
"N-nothing," Priss gave a meek smile, "Um, I was just surprised you played cello. I never knew that,"  
Shinji gave a slight smile, "Yeah. I played it a long time ago. However, I figured I'd try to pick it up again. Anyway you can help me?"  
"Sure, I can help you out. My guitar and set up are actually here at my place," she said. She looked around, "However, you don't have your cello with you,"  
"Um, actually, I don't have a cello of my own anymore," he said, "It was destroyed when f anity was destroyed. Um, is there any place where I can get one?"  
Priss thought for a moment, "Hm, around here? I'm not too sure,"  
Shinji snapped his fingers, "I just thought of something. I can ask Melinda if she could let me borrow hers,"  
"Huh?" Priss was confused.  
"You know that supermodel, Melinda?" he asked, "I met her at the bookstore. We talked to each other for around ten minutes before I left and started heading for here. I know where she lives because I helped escort her home one day. I can go ask her if I can borrow her cello,"  
"Melinda? The supermodel, Melinda? The one with the long blond hair and blue eyes?" Priss asked in succession, "The one you see in all those clothing and fashion magazines?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. She's the one. She lives nearby. We talked to each other and she mentioned that she wasn't doing anything today so she might be home. I can go ask her,"  
"I'll come along," Priss quickly said.  
"There's no need," Shinji waved a dismissive hand, heading for the door, "It'll only take around ten minutes,"  
"But-"  
"Also, I'm trying to get used to using the rooftops and jumping from one to another," he said.  
"So you basically don't want me coming along cause I'd slow you down?" Priss asked.  
Shinji shook his head, "No. It's because I'm really bad at it and end up miscalculating a lot of my jumps and missing rooftops completely. It'd be very embarrassing if you were around to see it,"  
Priss smirked. That was a rather unexpected replay but a good one nonetheless.  
"Well, still, I'll come along," she said, "I'll keep you company,"  
"Okay," he shrugged, "If you'd like,"  
At that moment, the phone rang. Priss excused herself to answer it. "Yeah?" she asked, a bit annoyed. She was about to head out with Shinji and make sure he wouldn't get himself in trouble. Who knew what that Melinda girl was capable of. What? Did she just think that?  
On the other side was her producer. It seems he had seen the tabloid as well and was now contacting her.  
"Um, it seems like you're busy," Shinji said, "Don't worry, I'll be back in a bit,"  
"But-" she called out.  
However, it was too late. Shinji was gone. She didn't know why but she felt this wave of jealousy envelop her. It was none of her business if Shinji knew Melinda or not or how they seemed to know each other, but she couldn't help but feel a bit of animosity toward the supermodel. She was gorgeous and she might snag Shinji without even trying.  
"You fuck! You made me lose him!" Priss screamed in to the phone. "Who?" the producer asked.  
"Shinji!" she said.  
"Who's that?" he asked.  
"My so-called 'lover'!" "Melinda-sama, there's a young gentleman here to see you," the intercom to her penthouse came to life.  
Melinda got up from her love seat, placing her magazine down.  
She clicked on the button on the intercom located right by her chair.  
"Who is it?" she asked. She wasn't expecting any company.  
"A young man named Shinji," came the reply.  
Melinda instant recognized that name. It was the name of the young man she talked to in the bookstore earlier. Shinji's name was one of the few random people she bumped in to whom she happened to remember. Then again, perhaps she remembered him because she bumped in to him several times.  
"Um, send him up," she said.  
She placed her magazine down and looked around. She was a tidy person so her place was well-kept. There were nothing misplaced save for the lone magazine on the coffee table she had been reading.  
She was a bit surprised when she heard the knock on the door a good minute earlier than expected. The elevators in her apartment complex moved at a certain speed and it took at least two minutes to reach her floor, provided the elevator was already down at the lobby level and no one else needed to be dropped off on different floors on the way up. There was no way to get up there any faster unless one took the stairs, but that would be impossible, right?  
She walked over to the door and opened it.  
"Um, hello again," Shinji gave a slight smile, visibly nervous.  
"What brings you here?" she asked, gesturing for Shinji to enter.  
Shinji entered. Not many men had ever seen the inside of her penthouse before but she didn't seem to mind with Shinji. He glanced around and noticed how retro the place looked. The apartment complex looked rather old but the inside of her penthouse looked rather modern.  
"This is a really nice place," Shinji commented. It reminded him of Priss' penthouse.  
"Thanks," she said, a bit surprised that Shinji showed no signs of being impressed. She lived in a rather extravagant penthouse and it always impressed the people that did have the honor of seeing her place.  
"Um, I was wondering if you can do me a favor," he said.  
"What is it?"  
"Well, you mentioned that you played the cello," he said, scratching the back of his head, "And, um, I was wondering if I could borrow your cello," "M-my cello?" Melinda was very surprised. This young man seemed to be full of surprises.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I don't have a cello to practice playing so I figured maybe I can borrow yours. It won't be for long. I can practice playing it in accompaniment with my friend. However, I don't have a cello to practice with. You mentioned you play so I figured maybe I can borrow it. Um, however, since you don't really know me, I guess it's understandable,"  
Melinda smiled, "Well, that's true, we barely know each other. However, I think I can actually help you,"  
"R-really?"  
She nodded, "Yes. I have extra cellos. My main one I keep here, in my penthouse. That one I can't lend you because it's from my childhood and passed down to me from my parents and my parents' parents and such," It was also worth several hundred thousand yen, close to a million yen, a cello that was as well over a hundred and fifty years old.  
"I understand," he said.  
"However, I've got two spare ones," she said, "One of them I bring it with me to places whenever I travel. The other one is brand new and was never used,"  
"Brand new?" Shinji said.  
She nodded, "Yes. One of my modeling friends knew I liked to play the cello and figured it'd be a good present to get me for my birthday, to replace my 'old' one,"  
"Why would someone wanna replace an old instrument?" Shinji asked, "They get better with age,"  
Melinda smiled warmly, "That's my point exactly. Let's just say she isn't all that bright and fits the public misconception that models are idiots,"  
"I never believed they are idiots," Shinji stated, "You sound really smart and I never believed you were stupid,"  
She smiled warmly, "Thanks. Stupid I'm not. Heck, I graduated from Tokyo University and that place definitely isn't for idiots,"  
Shinji's eyes widened, "Really? You went to Tokyo University? I'm attending there as well,"  
"Really?" Melinda perked an eyebrow, "What's your major?"  
"Engineering Science," he said, "I'm probably going to specialize in either Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering. I'm not too sure,"  
"Wow, that's very impressive," she commented, "Those two are the two hardest majors they have to offer,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Yeah, I wouldn't disagree. It's really hard. How about you? What major did you do?"  
"I graduated with a degree in Mathematics," she said.  
"Hey, you graduated not too long ago, right?" he asked, "You must've taken Calculus since it's a requirement for you major. Did you have Professor Kenami?"  
"Professor Kenami? He's still there? I figured he'd be retired by now," she said.  
"Well, he isn't," Shinji said, "I had him last year. I still see him roaming the halls so I guess he didn't retire this year either,"  
Melinda laughed. What a small world. She and Shinji had had the same professor for Calculus. Sure, she took it a few years earlier, but that was something she found amazing.  
"It's a small world," he said.  
"Yes," she nodded.  
"A degree in Mathematics, huh? Why are you a model then?" Shinji was confused.  
She smirked, "Because modeling is something I'm good at and gets the bills paid,"  
"I guess you have a point," he said.  
"Anyway," she said, feeling like she knew him even better now, "I don't see a problem in lending you the cello I got as a present,"  
"Really? Are you sure?" he asked, very surprised.  
She nodded, "Sure. Heck, it'd be put to good use. It's been sitting in its case for the past five years since I first go it,"  
"Um, t-thanks," he said gratefully.  
"I'll be right back," Melinda walked out of the livingroom.  
After a few minutes, she entered, carrying with her a black case that contained the cello. It even had a pink bow-tie on it that was probably from the wrapping.  
"Here you go," she handed it to him.  
"Um, c-can I remove the bow-tie? I kinda don't wanna be seen in public with it," he asked, gesturing.  
Melinda laughed, "Sure,"  
"Um, when do you want this back?" he asked.  
"It doesn't matter," she shrugged, "Just bring it back whenever. I'll most likely never use it so there's no real rush to see it. I couldn't bring myself to have it destroyed, it was a present from my friend afterall, but I see no problem in it being put to use by someone else,"  
"Thanks, I really appreciate it," he said, "Here, lettme give you my phone number, in case you need to contact me to get it back. Do you have a pen and paper?"  
"Okay," she said.  
She walked over to a nearby desk and produced a piece of paper and pen. She handed it to Shinji where she watched him jot down his phone number. She took the paper and read the number aloud, Shinji confirming that the number she read was correct.  
"Thanks for your help," he said, turning to leave.  
"W-wait," she said, realizing something.  
"Yes?"  
"D-don't you want my number?" she asked. It had occurred to her that it was the first time a guy had ever given her his phone number and not the other way around.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Oh yeah. I guess that would be good. It's better for me to call you first to make sure your around if I ever find myself getting a cello for myself and wanting to return this,"  
Melinda smirked. However, she wrote down her phone number, Shinji reading it aloud and she confirming it read correctly.  
"Thanks, Melinda, I really appreciate it," Shinji said, heading for the door.  
"No problem," she smiled.  
After Shinji left, Melinda found herself standing there for several long minutes, smiling inwardly.  
What a very interesting young man.  
She found herself wanting to get to know him better.  
Shinji entered Priss' penthouse only a short time after he left. Priss seemed rather relieved to see him, "Finally, you're back,"  
Shinji looked at his watch, "It's only been around fifteen minutes since I left,"  
"Nevermind," she gave a slight smile, wondering why she was worried in the first place. He looked no different than when he left. Shinji looked around and noticed a large speaker off by the corner of the room, an electric guitar leaning up against it. It seemed that Priss had used the time he was gone to set up her equipment.  
"I got a cello," Shinji smiled happily, "Now we can play,"  
"Um, sure," she said, looking at the case he placed down.  
She watched as he opened it up and took out a brand new cello.  
"Whoa, you bought yourself a cello?" Priss' eyes widened, "I thought you were going to go to that Melinda's place to ask if you could borrow it,"  
Shinji nodded, "I did. She had a new one sitting around the house and let me borrow this,"  
"Wow," she was surprised.  
Shinji sat down by the edge of the coffee table and let the cello rest on the floor and against his leg. He held the bow loosely in his right hand and the cello with his left.  
He proceeded to play a few notes, testing to see if they were in-key. After a minute and a few minor adjustments, it sounded perfect.  
Shinji started playing a song he remembered from a while back. He made a few mistakes at first but his fingers seemed to remember how to play the song, even without the need for the music piece.  
Priss smiled as she easily recognized that song, a song generally used for weddings. "That's the Pachelbel Canon in D," she commented after listening to it for only around thirty seconds.  
"Y-yeah," he said, a bit nervous at having an audience. However, he was a bit surprised that he wasn't all that nervous, at least no where as near as nervous as he figured he would be. Perhaps teaching classes had gotten him used to being watched.  
"I can do that," Priss smirked, walking over to her electric guitar.  
Shinji watched as she picked up her instrument and immediately began to start playing her own rendition of the song he just played. This shocked Shinji because it sounded like the Canon but also seemed uniquely different. The melody was there but there was such a variation to it that made it sound different.  
"Wow," he said after she finished playing, "That's awesome,"  
"Thanks," she smirked, "You're not all that bad yourself,"  
"T-thanks," he blushed.  
"Well, let's play,"  
"Let's go get some food," Priss said, "It's long past lunchtime,"  
Shinji looked at his watch and noticed the time. It was close to two in the afternoon. He had spent over three hours at Priss' place playing random songs. Priss was surprised that Shinji was very gifted in music, able to play melodies merely by ear. She realized this when she started playing a tune from one of her new songs and Shinji imitated it without much trouble, only messing up a few times before he realized the exactly fingering and notes he was supposed to do.  
"So, did you have fun?" Priss smirked, knowing the answer. Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I never knew 'jamming' was so fun. Thanks for showing me,"  
"Well, I'm glad I could help," she smiled warmly, happy that he was happy.  
"So, when are you going to tell me what all this is about?" she smirked, "We've been playing for some time but I have yet to know the real reason why you wanted to do so in the first place. I figure it'd be something more than a sense of curiosity,"  
Shinji said, "Oh, I didn't tell you? I thought I did,"  
"So what's the reason?"  
"Sumi plays the piano," he answered, "I mentioned to her that I played the cello and she suggested that we 'jam' this Saturday. I was worried that I would be too nervous to do so, to play in accompaniment with her, but it seems like that wasn't the case,"  
"Oh," Priss said.  
"Oh yeah, and speaking of which," he smiled, "I never got around to thanking you for yesterday,"  
"Oh, you mean the concert?" she waved a dismissive hand, "That's no problem,"  
"That too," he said, "However, I took your advice in to consideration," She regarded him for a moment, "What advice was that?"  
She gave him lots of advice so she had no real idea which advice he was talking about.  
"The one about kissing Sumi at the end of the night," he smiled. He figured it was best to tell Priss about it since she was the main reason why he had gotten this far.  
"You guys kissed?" Priss' eyes widened. She had completely forgotten to ask about that. She had wanted to ask him about that after he came back with the cello but had lost track of her thoughts, caught out with enjoying his company and just playing songs together with him.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
"That's great," she smiled, happy for him, "I knew you could do it,"  
"Thanks," he blushed, "All thanks to you. You giving us that ticket and the opportunity to spend Saturday night together was what did it,"  
"It's not a problem," she smiled, "So tell me all about it,"  
Shinji's stomach rumbled.  
"I guess we can talk about it over lunch," he gave a meek laugh.  
"Sure," she laughed.  
Priss felt very happy for Shinji. She was happy that his and Sumi's relationship was finally progressing. It was only a matter of time before they would be considered boyfriend and girlfriend. For some odd reason, she felt a bit sad.  
What was wrong with her? d thhe should be happy, not sad.  
Shinji, carrying the cello case, decided to stop by Makunouchi Gym on the way back home from Priss' house. He was curious as to when his debut fight would be and if Ippo knew yet. It had been over a week since he had become pro.  
It was only around three, he and Priss have eaten lunch at Priss' penthouse. They had gone downstairs to the hotel restaurant and ordered themselves some lunch, bringing it back with them to her hotel where they spent their lunch eating and conversing before Shinji finally said that it was about time that he left, that he felt like he was overstaying his welcome.  
Inside, he gently placed the case off in one corner as he looked around for Ippo. It only took a short moment before he found him helping someone out by the punching bag.  
"Hey," Shinji said.  
"Ah, Shinji," Ippo was happy to see him, "Just the person I wanted to see,"  
"Oh?"  
"I've got some good news," he said, "Your opponent for you debut fight has been decided,"  
"Really?" Shinji's heart started beating rapidly, "W-who?"  
"You're going to be fighting the son of a rival of mine from when I was around your age," Ippo said.  
"What's my opponent's name?" Shinji asked.  
"The same name as his father, Ichiro Miyata,"

new stuff 10/19

Emiko entered Shinji's room and saw him occupied, busy watching something on the small television set in his room.  
"What are you watching?" she asked, walking over and sitting next to him. She noticed that it seemed to be some kind of boxing match.  
"It's a video of my opponent for my debut match," he said, his eyes fixed on the screen, busy analyzing it in detail, "The guy on the right is named Ichiro Miyata and I'll be fighting him in under three weeks from now,"  
Emiko found herself a bit nervous, as if she was in Shinji's shoes, "R-  
really?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. This is a tape of him in his debut match. He doesn't seem much better than me but I've got to watch out for him because he's already been a pro for several months. He's already got five wins, all of 'em knockouts,"  
"A-are you worried?" she asked, concern in her voice.  
"Well, yeah," he said, "That's why I'm studying this tape Ippo lent to me. From what I see, if he's this good for his debut match, then I've got my work cut out for me. This guy's big and fast,"  
"He looks much bigger than you," Emiko couldn't help but comment.  
Shinji nodded, "I know. He looks like he's a Cruiserweight. Me, I still look like I'm a Middleweight even though we're actually the same weight. It's really strange though,"  
"How come?"  
"Well, the guy's name is Ichiro Miyata," Shinji stated, "It's the same name as his father," He gestured toward an open boxing magazine from a while ago that he had bought, "That's his father. The father is a lot smaller than the son,"  
"Is that so strange?" she asked, a bit confused.  
Shinji shrugged, "Not too strange. However, his father's weight class was usually around the Featherweight class. However, the son is in the Cruiserweight class which makes him significantly larger and stronger than his father,"  
"That's bad, right?"  
Shinji nodded, "Well, yeah. Most definitely. Miyata, the father, was an great fighter before he retired around the time Ippo retired. If the son fights like his father and has the power of a Cruiserweight, I'm in deep trouble,"  
"D-do you think you can beat him?" she asked, very worried. She didn't want Shinji to lose in his debut match. Heck, she didn't want him to ever lose.  
Shinji was silent for a good minute before he spoke.  
"We'll find out,"

Monday rolled around.  
Shinji nervously passed back and forth in front of 'D Cluster' for Sumi to arrive that morning. He found himself thinking about the kiss he and Sumi had shared. That was definitely the changing point in their relationship. They kissed so didn't that make them boyfriend and girlfriend? He looked down at the hole by the entrance of the building. It was the size of a fist.  
He smirked as he remembered punching the ground in frustrating and causing his fist to become partially embedded in it. He had done so after Tou had shoved him and he fell down to the ground and hurt himself.  
He wondered how he would go about dealing with Tou if that had done that to him now. Shinji probably would have grabbed the fingers of Tou's extended hand as he tried to shove Shinji and bent them backwards which would have led him to fall to his knees submissively.  
"Yeah, I probably would've done something like that," he said.  
"Done what?" Sumi's voice startled him.  
Shinji yelped in surprise as he turned around to face Sumi.  
"M-morning," he said nervously.  
"Morning," she smiled warmly.  
There was a moment of awkward silence.  
"Um, d-do you want to go steady?" he asked, blushing beat red. He didn't know if that was the right approach to go but hoped it was a good enough.  
Sumi gave Shinji an odd look. People still asked that? To go 'steady'? That was extremely old-fashioned. It was obvious he was asking that they become a couple, to become boyfriend and girlfriend. However, him asking that brought something to her attention. Exactly when did two people officially become a couple? She had no idea when she and Tou had become an couple. With Shinji, it seemed very clear-cut, that if she said yes, then that they would officially become a couple at that particular point in time.  
She found it a bit funny that Shinji wanted them to become a couple after only one date. However, if she thought about it, they were actually friends for over five months and hung out together during the summer and even before. In a sense, if she really thought about it, they had never officially went on a date.  
Shinji held his breath. He didn't know what came over him and why he asked that. He had been excited about seeing her on Monday, all the while dreading it. He dreaded the thought of asking them to become a couple because it was so nerve-racking. "Sure," she smiled warmly.  
A next several days went by without a hitch. Shinji resumed his usual schedule of attending school during the morning. During the time he was away at classes, Oki was at the house being trained by Ranma in anticipation of the upcoming tournament under two months from now.  
After classes Shinji trained with Emiko at the gym at around lunchtime, coming home at around three where he would go about teaching classes and teaching Emiko afterwards.  
When done with that, he usually had a bit of time to train at kicking a pole with his shins for a short time or perhaps going straight to having dinner. Afterwards, he went about sparring against Ranma, continuing to lose, something he had grown quite used to. After sparring, he spent his free time either studying for a bit or perhaps practicing cello.  
Shinji found himself practicing cello more often instead of studying, usually practicing in his room. This was because he noticed Emiko seemed to thoroughly enjoy listening to him play, even if he made mistakes from time to time and didn't play overly complicated pieces.  
"I really like that song you played," Emiko had commented at the conclusion of a piece, "What's it called?"  
"Oh, it's called the Canon," he said, "It's my favorite song,"  
"I like it," she smiled.  
"Same here," he said, "I guess we have similar tastes in music,"  
Emiko blushed. She had been very aware of that. They had a lot of things in common. However, she didn't know if Shinji knew or not, like how they liked the same music, same kinds of food, and shared the same passion for martial arts.  
Shinji usually practiced for a short time before he called quits, needing to be a realist and knowing that he could not waste his free time practicing the whole time and that had needed to study. He needed to study at least one hour a day or else he risked falling behind in class. He was smart but he had to work at getting the grade he wanted. He wasn't naturally smart like Sumi, at least not quite as naturally smart.  
Shinji usually went to sleep at around one to two in the morning, physically and mentally drained.

Emiko nervously paced back and forth in front of Makunouchi Gym one random weekday.  
She didn't know if she had it in her, to indicate her feelings toward Shinji. However, she knew that she liked him and wanted it to be known. She had spent a good portion of the morning talking to Akane and Luna, asking them for advice.  
"He sees you as a friend," Akane said, "However, you should let it be known that with most relationships, couples start off as friends,"  
"I-I know," she said, "I read about that in the book,"  
"What book?" Luna asked.  
"Um, a relationship book I picked up awhile ago," she said, blushing slightly.  
Luna smirked, "Heh, so I guess Ranma really was helping you out, afterall. I kinda feel bad that I didn't believe him at first,"  
"Well, what's this relationship book mention?" Akane asked, wondering if she should take a look at it. Perhaps it might have sound advice.  
"It says that most relationships starts out as friendship and moves up to becoming more so," Emiko said. It was mentioned in the second chapter of the book.  
"Well, that's true," Luna said, "Anyway, as Akane mentioned, Shinji most likely sees you as a friend. However, there's a chance that he sees you more as a friend but is worried about crossing those bounds,"  
"R-really?" Emiko asked.  
Luna nodded, "Yes. This is probably because he is comfortable with having you as a friend and doesn't want to risk messing up that friendship,"  
"All you have to do is just let it be known that you like him more than as a friend," Akane said, "Since Shinji doesn't seem to be capable of making a move, then I guess it's up to you to make a move,"  
"Um, I-I guess I can try," Emiko said nervously.  
That conversation had been around three hours ago and she had spend the time in-between mustering up the courage and trying to come up with a good approach to telling him.  
Her heart started beating rapidly when she noticed Shinji rounding a corner come running up to her. She also noticed that there were cuts and bruises on his face.  
Shinji gave a meek laugh, "Oh, that. Let's just say I have yet to get used to jumping. I'm getting better though because I'm getting less and less bruises,"  
Emiko giggled, "Well, I guess you have a point,"  
"Well, let's head on in," he said, smiling. "Um, o-okay," she said nervously.  
She followed Shinji in to the gym.  
"Um, Shinji," she began.  
"Hm?" he turned toward her.  
"Um, n-nevermind," she said, blushing, too nervous to say anything.  
"What is it?" he asked, now curious. Did he have something on his face?  
Emiko gave a meek smile, "It's nothing important,"  
"Okay," he shrugged.  
Emiko sighed. She was too nervous and couldn't bring herself to reveal her feelings. She was unfamiliar with dealing with something like this, dealing with emotions and feelings and such.  
Was revealing one's feelings always this nerve-racking?

Friday rolled around.  
Shinji waited in front of 'D Cluster' for Sumi to arrive for their first class. When she arrived at around ten minutes before class started, they greeted one another and headed toward the classroom.  
"Today's Friday," he began.  
"I know," she smirked, "I'm glad you pointed that out," Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, I guess I deserved that. Anyway, I just wanted to point out that it's Friday and Ranma and I and several friends will be going out on our usual Friday dinner,"  
Sumi held her breath. Was Shinji going to introduce her to his friends? That was definitely a step in the right direction. Sure, they were now officially a couple, but things didn't seem to change. She had actually found herself wondering when Shinji would kiss her goodbye. If he didn't kiss her goodbye one of these days, she was tempted to take matters in to her own hands and kiss him instead.  
It was really strange. In a sense, Shinji moved slow and fast at the same time. They only kissed twice, if one counted that birthday present a real kiss, and they were already a couple. That was considered fast. However, they had yet to kiss since Monday, which would be considered slow. What kind of relationship was this? It didn't seem to matter for her. She was happy to be in a relationship with Shinji. That was good enough for her.  
"Um, anyway, I was wondering if you're not doing anything tonight, would you like to come to Friday dinner with us?" he asked.  
Sumi smiled, "Of course,"  
She wondered if Shinji had already forgotten that she had said she was interested in going with him to Friday dinner over a week ago. From what it seems, it seems like he did. It didn't matter though. She was happy that he asked her. She had kept her Friday free for when he did ask her. What was strange was that he asked her on Friday. Sumi giggled.  
"What?" he asked.  
"I find this rather funny," she commented, "You wait until Friday to ask me to go out to Friday dinner with you and your friends,"  
"What, did I do something wrong?" he asked, feeling that he had done something really wrong. Was there some kind of etiquette to asking a girl out to dinner with some friends? Did he forget to say please? Was he supposed to say it really formal?  
Sumi smiled, "I was kinda expecting you to ask me out this Friday so I kept that day free. However, it's generally better to ask a couple of days in advance,"  
"Oh," he said, "I guess you have a point. I didn't realize that,"  
If I'm gonna ask Sumi to do something, I need to ask her a couple of days in advance, Shinji noted to himself. Man, I didn't realize that. I thought I could just ask her out on the same day. That's how it works for Emiko and I. I need to change. I'm too used to doing everything on a whim like I do with Emiko and she always being free to hang out with me.  
Shinji paused for a moment. Why did Emiko suddenly pop in to his mind?  
He shook his h mom It was probably an isolated thought that slipped in without him knowing.  
"When's dinner?" she asked.  
"It's tonight," he answered, "I'll stop by your place to pick you up,"  
"I understand, but exactly when?" she asked, "It kind of helps to know of a good time to be ready,"  
"Oh yeah," he gave a sheepish smile, "Um, it's at nine. I guess I can come by at around eight-thirty. It only takes around thirty minutes to walk from your place back to my place. That's from where everyone leaves to go to Friday dinner,"  
"Okay,"

Man, when am I ever going to muster the courage to tell him, Emiko wondered. It's been almost a whole week since I've talked to Akane and Luna and I have yet say anything. It was only around one. The two of them were in the middle of their jog when Shinji said that.  
"Let's stop and get something to eat," Shinji said from out of the blue.  
"N-now?" Emiko asked, a bit surprised. "Sure," he said.  
Emiko shrugged, "Okay,"  
Shinji smiled. He liked that about Emiko. She was whimsical much like him. That was unlike Sumi. During their free in between class, he had asked her if she wanted to go get something to eat. However, she had told him that she had to meet up with someone and had to decline. Shinji didn't like plans. He figured it was better to do everything on the fly, to decide what to do on the spot. Sumi wasn't like that, not that there was anything wrong with it. Perhaps there was something wrong with him. The only person that he knew that did everything on the fly was Ranma and Emiko. Everyone else usually tended to make plans in advance. "Where do you want to eat?" she asked.  
"Huh?" Shinji asked, regarding Emiko for several long moments. "W-where do you want to eat?" she asked, blushing slightly. Why was he staring at her like that? It made her self-conscious of herself. Shinji snapped out of his reverie, "Oh. That. Um, how about Chinese food?"  
"Sounds fine by me," she said. He smiled, feeling happy.y be

new stuff 10/21

Sumi was nervous as she approached Shinji's house. Sure, she was with Shinji and shouldn't be all that nervous, but she was still nervous. "There's no need to be nervous," Shinji said with a warm smile, "Just be yourself,"  
"I'll try," she gave a sheepish smile.  
Shinji regarded Sumi for a moment. She was dressed formally, clad in a ankle length black dress. It was rather conservative, no excess flesh exposed, but it made her look very beautiful.  
Shinji was clad in loose-fitting slacks and a nice button up shirt. He was neither dressed up nor down from his usual attire. It made Sumi realize that Shinji tended to dress better than average.  
"Do they all know I'm coming?" she asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
He opened the front gate for Sumi. The two of them entered and walked across the front to the front door where it was already open.  
"You've got a nice house," Sumi commented as she followed Shinji through the house. They were both headed toward the backyard where everyone was gathered and awaiting their arrival.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, thanks. But then again, this is Ranma's house. He just happens to let me live here. In a way, I'm freeloading off him until I can get on my own two feet,"  
"You ever plan on moving out?" she asked curiously.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, sooner or later. Most likely later than sooner,"  
He had wanted to make enough money to move out, but it would take a while before he would make any real money doing boxing. Ranma had said it would be at least two years before he would make a substantial sum of money from boxing.  
"'Bout time you get here," Ranma said, first one to see Shinji as he and Sumi emerged from the house.  
Everyone turned around to look at them. Sumi's heart started racing as she recognized the group. She immediately recognize Priss, Ritsuko, and Lisa. Although she had never actually met Ritsuko or Lisa before, she had seen their pictures all over the place enough times that she knew who they were.  
"Um, this is Sumi," Shinji blushed slightly.  
He didn't catch the glance Ranma, Luna, and Akane cast Emiko.  
"We meet again," Priss smiled warmly at Sumi.  
"Um, h-hello everyone," she bowed politely, a gesture she felt she had adopted from Shinji.  
Shinji went about introducing everyone to Sumi. When he got around to introducing Emiko, he noticed she didn't seem all that enthused to see Sumi again. He didn't think much about it.  
"You see this group?" Ranma smirked, gesturing toward everyone, "In a sense, we are the 'MegaTokyo Wrecking Crew',"  
"The what?" everyone looked at Ranma oddly.  
Ranma turned toward Akane, "You know what I mean?"  
"No, I don't," Akane was confused.  
"Y'know, just like how when we were younger, there was a 'Nerima Wrecking Crew'," Ranma commented, "This is basically a different version of that,"  
"Nerima Wrecking Crew?" Akane scratched her head, more confused.  
"Nevermind," Ranma said, shaking his head.  
"Nevermind him," Priss smirked, "He's stupid,"  
Ranma narrowed his eyes at Priss.  
Asuka eyed Sumi critically, "So, you and Shinji are seeing each other, huh?"  
Sumi and Shinji blushed.  
"What the heck do you see in him?" Asuka asked.  
"Perhaps something that you don't," Emiko jumped in.  
This surprised Luna, Ranma, and Akane. Emiko, sad by the fact that Sumi was around, found herself better than that of a person that would try to sabotage the two of them. If Shinji like Sumi, then she would try and help him out.  
"Um, thanks," Shinji gave a slight smile.  
Ranma was the first to compose himself from the three surprised by Emiko's defense of Shinji.  
"Well, now that we're all here, let's go eat,"

"You have this Friday dinner every week?" Sumi asked Shinji as the two of them walked toward Sumi's dorm apartment. Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Every week for the past couple of years,"  
"Wow," she smiled, "Is it always that, um, interesting?"  
"Yeah, more or less," he said, "It's all because of Ranma. He seems to say whatever's on his mind and it usually gets everyone all riled up,"  
"Does he do that all the time?" she asked, "From what I notice, he seems to not care one bit whether he offends anyone when he makes a random comment,"  
Shinji shrugged, "That's Ranma for ya,"  
"He's very interesting," she commented.  
Shinji became silent. Did just being around Ranma make Sumi start liking him? What the heck kind of guy is Ranma? He doesn't do anything and girls seem to like him. "W-what do you think of him?" he asked.  
Sumi shrugged, "He seems okay I guess. What, you think I like him or something?"  
Shinji blushed a deep shade of red, "N-no. I-I wasn't thinking of something like that. W-what makes you think that? W-what makes you think I'm jealous?"  
Sumi giggled, "Well, if it makes you feel any better, as nice and cool a guy Ranma is, there's nothing to be jealous,"  
"R-really?"  
"Well, yeah," she smiled, a bit nervous and happy at the same time, "I have you, afterall,"  
Shinji was momentarily shocked at the comment. Was she choosing him over Ranma? What were the chances? In his eyes, Ranma was better than him in every aspect and quality. This made it seem even more shocking when she choose Shinji over Ranma.  
"Thanks," Shinji smiled warmly.  
"Huh? For what?" she asked.  
"That really made my day," he said sincerely. Perhaps there was hope for him. Perhaps he wouldn't have to inwardly worry about Ranma stealing girls from him.  
"Um, okay,"  
Caught up in the moment of just being happy, Shinji held out his hand for Sumi to take a hold of. He didn't feel at all nervous or anything. Perhaps he was too happy to feel nervous. Sumi looked at his hand for a moment before she smiled and placed her hands in his.  
Together, the walked toward Sumi's dorm apartment, hand-in-hand.  
Shinji paused for a moment.  
"Something the matter?" Sumi asked curiously.  
He scratched his head, "I'm not too sure,"  
She stopped and stood by him as he looked around toward nothing in particular. It was as if he was checking out his surrounding.  
"Are you looking for something?" she asked.  
Shinji shrugged, "Not too sure. I just got this weird feeling like someone was watching us,"  
"W-watching us?" Sumi became a bit nervous.  
Shinji waved a dismissive hand, "It's nothing to worry about. I don't think it means anything,"  
"Um, okay," she said, feeling a bit good that Shinji was by her side.  
"Hey, whatcha doing tomorrow?" he asked, wanting to change the subject.  
"I'm not too sure. Why do you ask?" Sumi asked.  
"Well, I remember you mentioned about us playing musical instrument together," he said, "How about we give it a go tomorrow," he asked, "I've been playing cello for the past week so I don't feel all that rusty anymore,"  
"Really? You picked up a cello?" Sumi asked, "I remember you mentioned about not having one,"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. However, I managed to borrow one from someone I know. Therefore, I have a cello to work with. So how about it?"  
"This Saturday?" Sumi gave a slight smile.  
"Yeah,"  
"Unfortunately, that's no good," she said reluctantly, "Meito and I had something planned for the whole day,"  
"Oh," Shinji said, feeling a bit sad.  
"Perhaps another time," she said, "It's best if we try and plan ahead," "I guess you have a point," he sighed.  
The two of them arrived at Sumi's dorm apartment. "Well, I guess we're here," Shinji said.  
"Yeah, I guess we're here," Sumi said.  
The both of them stood there in awkward silence for several moments.  
"I had a fun time today," Sumi commented.  
"I'm glad you were there," Shinji said.  
The two of them looked at one another. Their hearts immediately started racing. They knew what was expected.  
"Um, good night," he said, "I hope we can do this again,"  
"Same here," she smiled warmly.  
Shinji saw his clue. Sumi closed her eyes, awaiting for him to make his move.  
Nervously, he leaned forward to kiss Sumi, tilting his head ever-so-slightly.  
To his surprise, he didn't mess up and end up accidentally bumping heads with Sumi as their lips pressed against one another.

Shinji had a big smile as he entered his bedroom after dropping Sumi off.  
It was only around midnight so he was a bit surprised to see that Sumi was usually up and getting ready to go to sleep. She usually read manga and such.  
This time around, Emiko was lying on her futon, her back toward him, seemingly asleep. She was hugging one pillow close to her chest, her head buried deep within a second one.  
"Emiko, you awake?" Shinji asked softly. Emiko didn't stir, most likely sound asleep.  
Shinji sat down in his futon, ready to go to sleep. He felt a bit bad because he would had liked to have talked to Emiko about his and Sumi's progress in their relationship. In a way, Emiko was finding out that he and Sumi were going steady much like everyone else. However, with Emiko, she knew that he liked Sumi. They had met once before at the gym back then.  
He sat in his futon for a moment before he believed Emiko really was asleep. If she was asleep, it was best not to wake her up. Besides, she probably didn't want to hear about him and Sumi. He got up off his bed and headed over to his dresser and grabbed a pair of clothes, wanting to go take a shower before heading off to bed.  
Little did Shinji know that Emiko had actually followed Shinji as he escorted Sumi home. Unfortunately, for her to have followed them, she had also seen Shinji and Sumi kiss.  
When she had seen that, she found herself so caught up in a whirlwind of emotions, unable to continue observing Shinji. All she could do was rush home, crying all the way.  
Fortunately, she was unseen as she entered the house and ran up to the room where she quietly cried herself to sleep.  
Poor Emiko.

Shinji noticed Emiko seemed depressed that Saturday morning. As he was crossing the livingroom to go to the bathroom to take a shower, he saw her lying languidly his he sofa, busying herself watching Saturday morning anime shows. Since Lina slept in, it meant the television was free for others to use.  
"Morning," he said, wondering what had her so depressed.  
"Morning," she forced herself to say, her attention on the television.  
"Is something the matter?" he asked, "It looks like something's really bothering you,"  
"I'm fine," she said with a sigh. She didn't mean to sigh. Perhaps it was just subconscious or her just wanting attention. That's what she believed.  
Shinji sat down by the arm rest of the couch and pressed his hand against Emiko's forehead. With anyone else, he would ask first. However, with Emiko, he felt comfortable enough around her that he didn't feel the need to ask or to explain his actions.  
"Hm, your temperatures fine," he said, noticing that her forehead didn't feel hot, "You have no fever it seems,"  
Emiko blushed, "I said I was fine,"  
"How come I don't believe you?" he smirked.  
"I'm fine, really," she lied.  
Shinji sat down on the couch next to her by her head. Since the couch was rather small, she needed to sit upright so that he didn't end up sitting on her hair.  
"You hungry?" he asked, deciding it was best to take a different approach. Since it was obvious she was feeling down, it was best to take her mind off whatever that was bothering her.  
"Not really," she said.  
Her stomach chose that particular moment to rumble.  
"Hm, I guess that doesn't seem like you're hungry," Shinji said sarcastically.  
Shinji laughed. Emiko couldn't help but giggle slightly. As embarrassing as it was, it was also rather funny.  
"You wanna go out and get some breakfast?" he asked. We haven't eating out together in a while, Shinji though. I kinda miss that. They kinda remind me as if we were going out on dates. Dates? Why the heck did I just think that?  
"Well, are you interested?" he asked.  
Emiko took several long moments before she answer. "Um, I guess,"

Priss was reading the newspaper that Saturday morning, wondering what she should do for the day. She was done with her tour and didn't have to worry about being on the road anymore, at least not for the time being. Unfortunately, she would be touring not long after to promote her new album.  
Although she had done a few concerts that did a few of her songs from her new album, she would not be doing new songs until the start of her new tour.  
There was a knock on her door.  
She immediately thought that it was Ranma. Ranma was notorious for dropping in unexpected, a definite pleasant surprise. She quickly placed her newspaper down and walked over to the door, stopping a moment to glance in a nearby mirror to see that she looked okay.  
Satisfied that she looked fine clad in her usual lounge-around clothes, she answered the door.  
When she did, she couldn't help but smile when she noticed that it was none other than Ranma.  
"Yo," Ranma said.  
"Ranma, what brings you here?" she smiled warmly, gesturing for him to enter.  
Ranma smirked, "Well, I figured I'd drop in and surprise ya,"  
"And a pleasant surprise it is," she smiled.  
"Actually, there's a real reason why I came," he said.  
"Might it be for sexual reasons?" Priss smirked.  
Ranma narrowed his eyes, "Man, you're starting to remind me of Misato,"  
Priss shrugged. "Anyway, there's a couple of things I wanted to talk to you about," Ranma said.  
"What is it?" she asked, wondering what has Ranma concerned. Nothing seemed to worry him. Ranma sat down, "It concerns Shinji,"  
"What about him?" her interest was piqued. "Well, actually, it concerns him and Sumi,"  
"What about them?" she asked, smirking, "Did you see them? He even walked her home after Friday dinner. I was surprised. I didn't realize that their relationship had progressed that far. Were you surprised when you found out that the two of them were going steady?"  
Ranma shook his head, "Not at all,"  
"Oh?"  
"I knew about Shinji and Sumi," Ranma said, "I've actually known about them probably around when you started trying to get them together,"  
Priss was silent. Ranma knew about Shinji and Sumi all this time?  
"I suspected something was up with the two of them when I first bumped in to them," Ranma said, "This was a long time ago, probably around five months ago,"  
"I never knew you knew," Priss said.  
"I think it's cool that you're helping Shinji and Sumi getting together, what with you giving him concert tickets and such so that the two of them would go together," Ranma said, "However-"  
"You know about that?"  
Ranma nodded, "Uh huh. And before you even ask, no, Shinji didn't tell me this. I figured it out on my own simply from observation and deduction,"  
"What're you, some kinda detective?" Priss smirked.  
"Bah, detectives with twice the clues can't figured out half the stuff I can figure out," Ranma grinned,  
Priss laughed. Ranma's confidence was on the borderline with arrogance but he seemed to pull it off quite nicely.  
"How do you know all of this stuff?" Priss asked, "Just from observing?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah. I guess it's because I have a lotta time. How much do you know about Shinji and Sumi?"  
"Well, I guess enough," she smiled, "I'm happy that they're together,"  
"Do you know anything about Shinji and Emiko?" Ranma asked.  
"What about them? They train together," she said.  
Ranma smirked, "You have no idea, do you?"  
"No idea about what?"  
"Emiko is in love with Shinji," Ranma said. Priss did a double take, "W-what?"  
Ranma smirked, "I'm sure you didn't know about that,"  
"I didn't," Priss said, feeling bad about herself, "T-tell me more,"  
"I don't think even Emiko realized it but from what I can tell, she fell in love with him around the time when they started jogging to the park together," Ranma said.  
"Park? They joy to the park together?" Priss was confused.  
Ranma shrugged, "Well, I guess it would be new for you since you only see Shinji every so often. Shinji and Emiko, they started training around five months ago, around the same time,"  
"That I'm aware of," Priss said.  
"When they train at the gym together, they also go jogging together," he commented, "Not too long ago, they started jogging to the park together rather than jog around the park,"  
"I never realized this,"  
"Let's just say that your matchmaking with Shinji and Sumi is making it very hard on Emiko," Ranma said, "Last night, she cried herself to sleep,"  
Priss gasped. She had no idea that it was like this.  
"H-how do you know all of this?" Priss asked.  
"I dunno if you realize this or not, but it's really hard to get things by me without my knowing," Ranma smirked.  
"I-I guess you have a point," she said.  
"Your tampering has caused a love triangle," Ranma smirked.  
Priss' lips became a thin line.  
Ranma shrugged, "Hey, as much as I would really like to watch and see how this turns out, I don't think I can stand around and see Emiko getting hurt like that,"  
"W-what do you plan on doing?" she asked, "Actually, you don't need to do anything. I'll go tell Shinji about what's up and apologize to Emiko for what I've done,"  
Ranma shook his head, "Nah. There's no need. In a way, I'm kinda guilty of playing matchmaking so I guess this makes it even,"  
"You've been playing matchmaking as well?" Priss asked, "How so?"  
Ranma shrugged, "Nothing like what you did. I just asked Ippo to do me a favor and try and have them train together rather than under separate training routines,"  
"Oh," Priss said.  
"Things have gotten complicated but I think it would get more complicated if you keep trying to set up Shinji and Sumi," Ranma said.  
"How so?"  
"Well, Emiko bought herself a damn relationship book," Ranma said, "Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that the book is useless and continues to follow it,"  
"Okay, and?"  
"Well, Emiko's not the aggressive type," Ranma said, "She's the exact opposite, very passive. The problem is that if Shinji and Sumi continue to get along better and better, she will most likely give up and go back to her own world,"  
"I don't want that to happen," Priss said.  
Ranma shrugged, "As nice as it would be to have one less person around the house to worry about, I don't think it should end up like that. If Emiko goes home, it should be because of something like being homesick, not heartbroken,"  
"I totally agree," Priss said emphatically, "It should never come to that,"  
"The point is is that you should let Shinji and Sumi and Emiko go about at their own pace," Ranma said, "I know Shinji likes Sumi, but he also likes Emiko. However, because of you basically throwing Shinji and Sumi together, Shinji seems to like Sumi,"  
"What, you think Shinji would like Emiko more if I didn't, um, interfere?" Priss asked curiously.  
Ranma shrugged, "I really dunno. It's all up to Shinji. It's quite a toss-up. Sumi seems better suited for Shinji, but Emiko and Shinji go back further and know each other better,"  
"You think Sumi is better for Shinji?" Priss asked, "Really? How come?"  
"Shinji's really smart and Sumi is intellectually at his level," Ranma said, "I don't mean to be mean, but Emiko lacks the education that Sumi has. In a sense, Shinji can't hold intellectual conversation with Emiko while he can with Sumi. But then again, it's not all about the education. Look at me, I've never finished high school and I'm doing fine,"  
"Huh? You never finished high school? " Priss was shocked.  
Ranma laughed, "Man, we've known each other for a long time and you didn't even know that about me? Jeez,"  
Priss blushed. That was because Ranma was a very hard person to figure out. Just when one of them believe they figured him out and what makes him tick, he surprises them with something new that they never knew about him.  
"That's besides that point," Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "The point is is that, objectively, I believe Sumi is the better person for Shinji. However, I'm rooting for Emiko,"  
"I never realized you felt this way," Priss commented.  
"Sumi's a great girls and all. Don't get me wrong," Ranma said, "However, Emiko and Shinji have been through much more together. The way I think of it, that whole stint he and Emiko did on that world trying to help out the God-  
version of myself should be reason enough that they should get together,"  
"Well, if it makes you feel better, I'll back off and leave Shinji and Sumi and Emiko alone," Priss said, "I was just trying to nudge Shinji along. I care for Shinji and wanna see him happy,"  
Ranma smiled, "I know you care for Shinji. I care for him too, and Emiko, and even Sumi, as well. However, what you need to know is that Shinji's a lot more complicated than you think he is,"  
"What do you mean?"  
"Just how much about Shinji do you know?" Ranma smirked.  
"Like what? You mean about him piloting and EVA back on his own world?" Priss asked, "I know about that,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Well, that's some of it, but not all,"  
"Tell me then," Priss said.  
Ranma shook his head, "Nah. I'll leave it for Shinji to tell you if he feels like it,"  
Priss narrowed her eyes. After a moment, she shrugged and sighed. It was useless to try and get him to divulge information if he didn't feel like telling him.  
"Anyway, you should just try and leave Shinji and Sumi alone," Ranma commented, "If they get together, that's fine by me. I'll feel bad for Emiko, but I guess it can't be helped. At the moment, Emiko is trying to gather the courage to tell Shinji her feelings so that's her current hurtle. Having it where you're purposely trying to get Shinji and Sumi together will make the hurtle that much harder to overcome,"  
"I understand," Priss said, "I'll leave them be,"  
"Thanks," Ranma smiled.  
"Just curious," Priss asked, "How do you know so much about Emiko? How do you know she's in love with Shinji? She didn't act all weird or anything while Sumi was around. I didn't even see her showing any form of jealousy,"  
Ranma smirked, " By , I know this about her because I've been watching her from time to time,"  
"You've been spying on her?" Priss' eyes widened.  
Ranma laughed, "Not necessarily along those lines. On both occasions, I found out about her by accident,"  
"What happened?"  
"Well, not too long ago, I saw Emiko sneaking out of the house one Saturday night," Ranma said, "I didn't know where she was going so her acting suspicious got me curious. At the time, I didn't realize she went out to spy on Shinji,"  
"When was this?" Priss asked. Ranma shrugged, "Not too long ago. Anyway, I followed her and I found out that she followed after Shinji as he went over to Tokyo University to pick up Sumi and her friend. I dunno what her friend's name is. I assume she was Sumi's roommate. Anyway, that night, Shinji and the two of them went and did some volunteer work somewhere on campus and even gave blood. Basically, while Emiko was spying on Shinji, I was spying on Emiko. A second time, that happened last night. She secretly followed after Shinji after we all got back to the house and he had gone off with Sumi to walk her home. I followed along. However, she had no idea I followed her. The point is, for a girl to go through that much trouble to chase after someone isn't something a girl would do if she was just friends with a guy. It's obvious she's in love with him. Also, the fact that she cried herself to sleep, as heart-wrenching as it was, was also a good indication of her feelings,"  
"Man, this is unbelievable," Priss commented.  
"You said it," Ranma smirked, "And that's just the tip of the iceberg,"  
"What do you mean?" she asked.  
Ranma laughed, "You have no idea just how complicated things really are. The triangle that seems to have formed between the three of them pales in comparison,"  
"What do you mean? Tell me," she said sternly, very curious.  
Ranma thought about it for a moment, "All right. I'll tell you, or at least drop a few hints. You're gonna find out sooner or later. That's guaranteed. Be sure to talk to Ritsuko and the other about this when the day comes,"  
"When the day comes? What do you mean by that? Why are you being so cryptic?" she asked.  
"First off, have you ever seen Shinji fight?" Ranma asked.  
Priss nodded, "Yeah. He's a very skilled martial artist,"  
"Yeah, but how long ago has it been since you last seen him fight?" he asked.  
"I dunno, about a year or so ago, why?" she asked, scratching her head.  
"Shinji, minus the use of ki, is very close to being as powerful as I was when we first fought against one another," Ranma said, "In a few more months, will be at the same level as where I was when we first fought, minus the use of ki-  
blasts that is,"  
Priss became silent. In the past fifteen or so minutes since Ranma had come to visit her, she had been stunned silent several times. In a sense, hearing about Shinji was surprising her every bit as much as hearing about Ranma.  
"How's that possible? Shinji's been training for, what, around four years?" Priss asked, "After the 'Nerima Massacre' you trained for a few decades before you became that good,"  
Ranma smirked, "You're right,"  
"But then again, you trained by yourself," Priss stated, "Does having someone train you help that much over training by yourself?"  
Ranma shrugged, "Maybe, but who knows,"  
"Does Shinji know this?" Priss asked, "I mean he really looks up to you. I think he has low self-esteem about becoming as good as you and believes he'll never reach your level. If he finds out that he is very close to reaching a level where you are, he will feel a great sense of accomplishment,"  
"He doesn't know," Ranma said, "He also doesn't even realize some of his own abilities,"  
"Like what?"  
"He's body has a unique ability that neither I nor Ryoga have," Ranma smirked, "In a sense, much like how Shinji's grappling-type fighting style is unique when compared to my speed-type fighting style and Ryoga's power-type fighting style, his body has unique abilities that even he hasn't realized yet,"  
"And what ability is this?" Priss asked.  
"Ki absorption," Ranma smirked.  
"What?" Priss gasped, "Ki absorption?"  
"Yeah," Ranma said, "It's kinda like how my body has this unique ability to generate and AT field, and Ryoga's body having this unique ability to withstand just about any form of physical attack, Shinji's own body has one similar,"  
"Can you explain it?"  
"Well, a while back I started showing Shinji how ki works," Ranma said, "However, he never quite understand the science behind it. That's why you don't see him shooting ki-blasts and brushing horrendous blows that could otherwise kill a person. Since we've been sparring, I wanted to force Shinji to fight much better than humanly possible which is why I spar against him in an inhuman fashion,"  
"Inhuman fashion?"  
Ranma laughed, "Man, you should really observe our sparring matches one day. You'll immediately come to realize that it's inhuman to fight each other like the way we do. Anyway, because I want him to become such a good fighter, I need to expose him to that kind of fighting. However, that isn't without its risk. The main risk is for him to fight like that, he also getting hurt when fighting like that. Therefore, at the beginning over every match, I would basically imbue him with my own ki so that it would protect him. His body subconsciously knows how to manipulate ki to make it protect him, but it doesn't know exactly how to summon it,"  
"Wow,"  
"Anyway," Ranma continued, "I did this for a while before I stopped, wanting him to do so on his own. This was during the time when he first put on the vest and was weighed down heavily by it, making it impossible for him to even fight like a normal person, much less need ki to protect him in case our sparring gets serious. Anyway, even though I stopped, his body still absorbed my ki as if I was giving it to him, even without him knowing. The point I'm getting at is that because of my constantYep,iving him ki at the beginning of sparring matches, his body has somehow become a ki magnet,"  
Priss shrugged, "So? You gather ki really quickly also. In a sense, I've seen you use ki like it was nothing. From the way things look, it seems like you have an infinite supply of that stuff,"  
Ranma laughed, "I guess that might seem the case. However, it's different. I'm good at gathering ki. Shinji is good at absorbing it,"  
"How is that different?" she asked, "They sound like the same thing,"  
"They do," he nodded, "But there's a huge difference. Shinji can't gather ki, which is the main reason why he can't cast ki-blasts. Ryoga and I can gather it which is why we can use ki-blasts. However, we can't absorb it which is why we can get hurt if we get hit by it. Shinji on the other hand-"  
"Wait, are you trying to tell me that Shinji's impervious to ki-blasts?" Priss' eyes widened.  
Ranma shrugged, "Not impervious. That's what the God-version of myself was. I'm speaking more along the lines of being less susceptible of being seriously hurt by one,"  
Priss was unable to say anything, her words failing her. This felt like one of those 'Ritsuko explanations' where everyone would listen in disbelief at what they hear.  
"I found this out only a short time ago," Ranma said, "It seems like Shinji can't use ki like the way Ryoga and I can. That's from what I've noticed so far. He can probably summon some by pure luck or accident, but I'm sure it's something he won't be able to understand fully. However, his body seems to subconsciously absorb ki. Hypothetically speaking, if Shinji actually understands how to master ki absorption, being hit with a ki-blast would only make him stronger since his body with subconsciously convert that ki in to a protective barrier. Pretty messed up, huh?"  
"Y'think?" Priss said sarcastically, "How'd you figure this out?"  
"I stopped using ki-based attacks on him, like a ki-based punch," Ranma smirked, "When I stopped those kinda attacks and just started to physically attack him, it effected him more. I came to the conclusion that anything ki-  
based doesn't effect him as much as it would effect other people,"  
"Man, that's insane,"  
"Of course, I can still knock him out with a ki-based punch," Ranma shrugged, "But that's because my fist still hit him which is still a physical attack. However, the ki portion of the punch seems to be almost ineffective on negligible," "Man, is your training that good?" Priss asked, "Can it make a person that powerful?"  
Ranma said, "Perhaps. You know Oki? I've been training him for only a couple of weeks. If you want, check him out now to see how he is. Check him out a few months later to see how much better he's grown since then,"  
"I might do just that," Priss said, "From the way it sounds, it seems as if you're one heck of a sensei and can really make people surpass some kinda human limit to fighting,"  
Ranma laughed, "I dunno about that,"  
"When do you plan on telling Shinji?" Priss asked.  
He shook his head.  
"I'm not. I'm just gonna let him figure out on his own,"

new stuff 10/28

"Hey, look, it's Ranma,"  
Emiko and Shinji were walking down the street together when they saw Ranma crossing a street. Ranma spotted them at around the same time and approached them.  
"Hey," Ranma smiled as he approached them, "Whatcha guys up to?"  
"We were just heading out to get some breakfast," Shinji answered, "How about you?"  
Ranma was hungry. He hadn't eaten yet. However, he knew it was best not to join them, wanting them to be left alone.  
"I was coming from Priss' place," Ranma answered, believing there was no need to lie.  
"Priss' place? What for?" Emiko asked, figuring it was best to try and get in on the conversation if possible.  
Ranma shrugged, "Just visiting her. It's the weekend and a lot of the girls are off from work so I figure I'd go around town and pay 'em a visit. Also, I'm probably gonna stop at a few car d he rships,"  
"Car dealership? Oh, to buy a car?" Shinji asked, remembering Priss mentioning that to him.  
Ranma nodded, "Uh huh. I mentioned it to Priss today. She even mentioned about how she could help customize the car and put in a good racing engine. She told me she has a spare car engine she could put in whatever car I get,"  
Shinji smirked, realizing that Ranma must be referring to the McLaren F1 engine Priss had that she jacked from the supposedly abandoned car that used to belong to Tou.  
"Is there a particular car you plan on getting?" Shinji asked curiously.  
"I think I'll pick up a station wagon," Ranma said seriously.  
Shinji almost fell to the ground in shock, "S-station wagon? W-why would you get something like that?"  
"Well, I don't like carrying sheetrock," Ranma stated, "Remember a while back when Akane thought I was trying to peep on Misato and hit me and ended up sending me right out through the bathroom wall and causing a giant hole? Well, I had to carry the sheetrock from the hardware store all the way back to the house to have the hole repaired. The same thing applies for the other times a hole was created. I had to carry the sheetrock. It's not heavy or nothing but it definitely was annoying. Anyway, I think having a station wagon would be helpful to carry the sheetrock since it's large enough to do so,"  
"Um, that's how you're basing what kinda car you're going to get?" Shinji asked, "I mean, this is a station wagon you're talking about. Have you seen what they look like?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I've seen them around. They look cool,"  
"C-cool? A station wagon?" Shinji gave a sheepish smile.  
For some odd reason, Shinji wasn't all that surprised. Ranma seemed like the type of person that would choose something that was more functional that stylish. For something like this, there was definitely a generation gap between him and Shinji. For some odd reason, Shinji wouldn't be surprised if Ranma didn't really understand exactly what the word 'cool' meant.  
"Anyway, I'm off to visit some people before looking for a car," Ranma started heading off, "I'll see you guys around,"  
"Um, okay," they both said.

Shinji and Emiko sat facing one another at a diner table. The two of them had decided to go to a diner and eat some breakfast there.  
"I'm kinda eager about my upcoming debut match," Shinji said as the two of them waited for their food to arrive.  
"You are?" Emiko asked. For some odd reason, she seemed to have forgotten that she was supposed to be depressed. Perhaps her being happy when in Shinji's company outweighed her being depressed over the fact that he and Sumi were now a couple.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I've been reading up on my opponent, Ichiro Miyata, and he's already got five wins under his belt, all of 'em knockouts,"  
"I'm sure you'll do fine," she said confidently.  
"Thanks," Shinji blushed slightly.  
There was a moment of silence.  
"Um, can I ask you something?" he began.  
"What is it?" she asked.  
"Are you doin' anything today?" he asked. He remembered Sumi mentioning that it was usually better if he tried to plan things ahead instead of doing things on the fly and he figured it couldn't hurt to start with Emiko.  
"Nothing in particular, why?"  
"Would you like to come with me to Miyata Gym?" he asked.  
"Miyata Gym?" Emiko asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. My opponent's father owns his own gym and the son, my opponent, trains there. I figure I should go there and see what kind of fighter my opponent is,"  
"But don't you watch the videos?" Emiko asked.  
"I do," he nodded, "But they're not good enough. I figure it'd be better if I just see how he fights in person,"  
"What do you plan on doing?" she asked.  
"Um, asking him to spar me," he gave a nervous reply, "I have no idea what I'm getting myself in to by doing that, but I figure it's better to do that and know exactly how he fights up close and personal instead of nervously wondering if he continues to fight like in the videos,"  
"You're really nervous about the upcoming fight?" Emiko asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. I dunno why, but I am. I figure something like this could help calm down my nerves. It's about, what, two weeks before my debut match and I don't like the thought of being nervous all the way up until the debut match,"  
"You want me to come with you?" Emiko asked, pointing to herself.  
"Yeah, if you're not busy," Shinji said, hopeful.  
"W-why me?" she asked, the sudden image of Sumi popping in to her head.  
"Why not?" he asked, "I don't wanna go alone and having you around would make it less nerve-racking going there,"  
"W-what about Sumi?" she dared to ask, wondering why she was asking a question like that.  
Shinji shook his head, "No. She's busy today,"  
"Oh," Emiko said, her visage saddening, "So you're only asking me because Sumi can't go with you?"  
Shinji gave Emiko and odd look, "Huh?"  
"Isn't that the reason?" she asked, "Because Sumi isn't free so you're hoping I was free?"  
"No," he said without hesitations, "Actually, the thought about asking her to come with me never crossed my mind,"  
"R-really?" Emiko was very surprised.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Why would I ask her to come with me? I'd rather have you come with me than anyone else,"  
"For real?"  
"Yeah," he said, "Why do you ask? What makes you think I would choose Sumi over you for something like this?"  
Emiko blushed, "Oh, um, it's not that. Um, er, it's just that, um, since you two are, well, a couple and all..."  
Shinji shrugged, "Why should that mean we can't go places together like we usually do?"  
Emiko was silent. "So, would you be interested?" he asked, "Would you like to go there together? Miyata Gym is actually close by. It'll only take around an hour by train,"  
"Yes,"  
"Yes? Yes what?" he asked, scratching his head. Yes as in 'Yes, it would take an hour by train'?  
"Yes, I'll go with you," she smiled happily.  
"Cool," he said.  
At that moment, their meal arrived.  
"Ah, now that we've got that settled, let's dig in," Shinji said.  
"Right," she smiled and began eating.  
Shinji glanced toward Emiko one last time before he went about eating his own meal.  
What the hell am I getting myself in to, Shinji thought. Shinji had believed Emiko felt depressed and that a change in scenery would most likely make her happy. However, he couldn't really think of a good idea of where to go and had come up with the insane idea to go to Miyata Gym together.  
I'm an idiot, Shinji thought.  
However, Shinji couldn't help but wonder what had made him actually bring himself to do something so stupid as going to spar his future opponent, all for the sake of making Emiko no longer depressed.  
Shinji and Emiko boarded the train together.  
Upon boarding, they immediately realized how busy it was. But then again, it was the middle of the day and people probably wanted to go somewhere since it was a rather nice day out.  
They found themselves standing very close to one another up by one end of the train cart.  
"D-do you know what stop we're supposed to get off at?" she asked, blushing slightly. She was standing so close to him that she could smell his scent. It was a mix of perspiration and scented soap.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. It's just five stops from here,"  
"Okay,"  
Emiko gave a yelp of surprise when she felt something press up against her backside. She quickly turned around to inspect and found herself looking at the hand pressed against her. It was a groper.  
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Shinji sneered toward the man, a non-descript looking man that was probably in his mid-twenties that had wanted to cop a feel, hoping the crowdedness of the train would hide his actions.  
Emiko stared with wide eyes as Shinji seemed to come to her defense over being groped. She had heard about that, that some men used crowded buses and trains and subways to grope young and unsuspecting females. Since those placed were usually very crowded, it seemed very accidental. However, with her, she knew it wasn't accidental.  
Shinji, very angry, stepped past Emiko and grabbed the man by the shirt collar, shoving him backwards where he fell down to the floor. By now, several people nearby had turned around to see what was going and found themselves staring at the two individuals.  
"If you're gonna grope someone, go do it elsewhere," Shinji said loudly for everyone to hear.  
The man said nothing, knowing that he had been caught red-handed. He quickly got back up to his feet, pretending nothing had happened and slowly made his way further in to the train cart, disappearing among the crowd of people.  
"Um, thanks," Emiko said.  
"Um, no problem," he said nervously.  
Why did I do that, Shinji thought. Emiko can take care of herself and could've handled it herself. She probably would've grabbed the guy's hand and twisted his arm and hold him in a submissive position to teach him a lesson.  
Why did I he suddenly get so angry and felt the need to protect her?

new stuff 11/1

Shinji and Emiko entered Miyata Gym sometime around noon.  
Upon entering, they immediately realized that it looked very much like Ippo's own gym. "The layout of this gym and Ippo's gym looks very similar. It even has a ring right in the middle of the floor," Emiko commented.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. However, this gym looks like it's more 'up-to-date'. It's got some more sophisticated looking weightlifting machines and such,"  
"But they serve the same purpose, right?" Emiko asked.  
"You've got a point," Shinji said, "They both get the job done so I guess it doesn't matter whether one machine is more expensive than the other,"  
A very handsome man approached them. The two of them regarded the man and noticed that he was middle-aged, somewhere around Ippo's age. His hair style looked very much like Shinji's, the hairs short gray hair which made him look more mature and worldly than old. He was around Shinji's height, perhaps a bit taller. He had a really good build and looked to be somewhere around a solid hundred and sixty pounds of pure muscles.  
"Afternoon," the man said. He had a rather cold-looking exterior but his voice seemed to indicate otherwise.  
"Um, hello," Shinji said nervously. He recognized the man. It was a man he had seen in magazine. It was Ichiro Miyata, the father of his opponent. He and Ippo used to be rivals when they were around Shinji's age.  
The man smiled, "I'm Ichiro Miyata, the owner of this gym. I don't recognize you two. Are you here to join?"  
"Um, no," Shinji said, "Um, I'm Shinji Ikari. This here is Emiko,"  
"It's nice to meet you," the man smiled, "So, what brings you here? Wait, did you say Shinji Ikari?"  
"Yes,"  
The man smiled, "You and my son are scheduled to fight each other a couple of weeks from now. It's going to be your debut match, too, huh?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yes, sir,"  
"And you're here to check out the competition?" the man smirked.  
"I guess," Shinji said after a pause.  
Not really, Shinji thought. I just came here to help distract Emiko from whatever's making her seemingly depressed, but I guess I am kinda interested in knowing. I guess it's kinda like killing two birds with one stone.  
The man regarded Shinji for a moment, which made him very self-conscious.  
"That's strange," the man commented, "I don't understand how that's possible, that you would be fighting my son in your debut match. You don't look any heavier than a Middleweight. My son's a Cruiserweight,"  
Shinji gave a meek laugh, "Um, I get that a lot. However, I actually am a Cruiserweight. I weigh close to two hundred pounds,"  
"T-two hundred pounds? You're kidding me, right?" the man was shocked.  
He shook his head, "No. I'm not kidding. In actuality, I think I might hafta lose some weight to drop down to a Cruiserweight. I weighed myself this morning and I was a little above what the weight classes maximum weight was,"  
The man was silent for close to a minute, busy trying to comprehend Shinji's words.  
"Um, if you want, I'll be glad to step on a scale to show you that I really do weigh that much," Shinji said, a bit confident.  
"Nah, there's no need," the man said, "It's not that I don't believe you. It's just very surprising. That's all,"  
Shinji gave a meek laugh, "I kinda get that a lot,"  
The man whistled toward his son whom had been in the other side of the gym doing some jump-rope. The son stopped what he was doing and approached the group.  
Shinji and Emiko regarded the young man for a bit. He looked almost exactly like his father. The few differences were that the son had black hair where the father had gray hair and he had a larger build than the father, his size clearly indicating that he weighed that of a Cruiserweight, somewhere around a hundred and ninety pounds. He looked to be somewhere around Shinji's age, perhaps a year or two older.  
"What is it, dad?" the son asked.  
"This here is Shinji and Emiko," the father said.  
"G'afternoon," the man said politely, "I'm Ichiro Miyata Junior, but feel free to just call me Miyata,"  
"Hello," Shinji and Emiko greeted them.  
"So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Miyata turned toward his father.  
"Tell me, how much do you know about your upcoming opponent?" the father smirked.  
"His name's Shinji Ikari," Miyata said, "It's his debut match and he trains at Makunouchi Gym. He's also being trained by your good friend, Ippo Makunouchi. He's an in-fighter, which I guess is probably a product of Makunouchi-san's training. Aside from that, I don't know much else,"  
The father smiled, "Well, if you'd like to know, feel free to ask this young man. This here is Shinji Ikari, your upcoming opponent,"  
"What? You?" Miyata's eyes widened.  
Shinji gave a meek smile.

Emiko felt this sense of excitement as she stood by Shinji as he proceeded to put his boxing gloves on, a pair he was borrowing from the gym. They were just off to the side from the ring. After he was finished tying up one boxing glove, he held his other glove forward for Emiko to tie for him, something she didn't seem to mind doing. Rather, she seemed a bit happy to do so.  
Hm, it seems like whatever's bothering had disappeared, Shinji thought. I'm nervous as hell and my heart's beating so fast it feels like it's going to explode, but if it makes Emiko forget what's bothering her, I guess it's worth it. "I'm pretty excited," Emiko said, continuing to tie the glove, "This seems like it's a prelude to what kind of fight you and Miyata-san will have when you two officially get in the ring for your debut match,"  
Shinji said nothing, seemingly transfixed at watching the fingers of her small and slender hands as they went about tying the glove tightly. Something inside him was telling him that he liked this very much. He liked having Emiko around tying his glove. It seemed right.  
"How do you think you'll do?" she asked, looking up toward him.  
Shinji didn't seem to be paying all that much attention, caught up in deep thought.  
"Shinji?" she asked.  
"Huh?" he snapped out of his reverie, "Sorry. What was that you said?"  
She shook her head, "Don't worry about it. It's not that important,"  
"Um, okay," he said.  
"There, done," she said, stepping away, satisfied with how she accomplished her task.  
Shinji tested the glove, squeezing his hand a few times. It was on very snugly, a perfect fit.  
"Thanks," he smiled.  
"It's no problem," she smiled in return.  
Shinji turned his attention toward the ring where he saw Miyata, already gloved, stretching, his father in the ring with him saying some words of encouragement to him.  
"Remember, he'll be having his debut match against you in a couple of weeks from now," the father said, "Just go easy on him. He's not even a rookie and is very much like you were several months ago,"  
"I understand," Miyata said, "I have no intention of doing anything to him. He's also got his girlfriend here watching him and it'll be really embarrassing to him if he loses so easily in front of her,"  
He went about doing some shadow boxing.  
"That's true," his father nodded.  
"You think I should let myself lose to him?" Miyata asked curiously, "It'll be a really good confidence booster for him,"  
His father shrugged, "It's up to you,"  
Shinji turned toward Emiko, "I wonder what they're talking about,"  
"They're probably just talking about their fight plan," she commented, "About what to do and what not to do,"  
"I think you're right," he agreed, "So, what do you suggest? What do you think I should do?"  
"M-me? You're asking me for advice?" Emiko was surprised. She knew very little about boxing, despite having trained in it for so long. Besides, Shinji knew much more and most likely knew what to do anyway. There was no need for her input.  
Shinji nodded, "Of course you,"  
Emiko was speechless. She didn't know what to say. Suddenly, she became nervous. What did she know? What if the advice she gave him was useless and led to him losing? She couldn't live with the thought that he could lose because of her.  
"Well?" he asked.  
Emiko realized that Shinji really was interested in what she had to say. However, she had no idea what to say and was worried about what to say.  
"Um, you should watch out for his body blows," Emiko said, "Um, I noticed him shadow boxing and his body blows look like they could really hurt,"  
Shinji was a bit surprised, "Really?"  
She nodded, "Yes. Every one of his shadow punches toward the body aimed for the sternum. If one hits, it could leave you momentarily stunned,"  
"Thanks," Shinji said truthfully, "I didn't notice that. I'll be sure to look out for it,"  
"No problem," she said.  
Shinji turned around and climbed in to the ring. The father said some final words of encouragement toward his son before he climbed out of the ring. The two opponents tapped their fists against one another, indicating that they both knew that this was just a sparring match and not a real fight before heading to their respective corner.  
The bell rang, signaling the start of round one.  
"A-are you okay?" Shinji asked, rushing to Miyata's side as he knelt down in the middle of the ring, clutching his right hand.  
Miyata winced in pain and he looked at the blood dripping from the glove and down his forearm.  
"What happened?" the father climbed in to the ring.  
"I-I dunno," Miyata said, "B-but I think my hand's broken,"  
"W-what?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
Miyata was very sure his hand was broken. He had punched Shinji so hard that there was no way his hand could not be broken. What was even worse was that Shinji didn't seem to have gone down after being hit that hard. All he did was stagger backwards a few times before he managed to compose himself. By then, he caught sight of Miyata in a state of pain, unable to continue fighting.  
The fight hadn't even lasted two full rounds. Miyata had only hit Shinji a total of around five times in the first round all of which were powerful enough to at least send him to the canvas. However, when he didn't fall, Miyata found himself getting frustrated that he couldn't make Shinji fall at least once and let his impatience get the better of him. If he had kept his cool and fought normally, Shinji would've eventually been felled, at least most likely.  
Emiko climbed in to the ring and rushed to Shinji side.  
"What happened?" she asked him.  
"I dunno," Shinji said, rubbing at the bruise that would eventually form under his right eye, "I think he hit me so hard that he broke his hand,"  
Emiko gasped in shock. The two of them watched as the father gently took off the glove covering Miyata's damaged hand. When Miyata shouted in pain as he tried, they realized that the glove would have to be cut off instead of slid off. The father exited the ring and went in to his office, emerging a second later with a pair of scissors and a bucket of ice.  
When the glove was removed, everyone found themselves gasping at the sight.  
Miyata's hand was badly damaged and the knuckles were all bloody. One of the bones had broken through the skin on the back of his hand, blood gushing from the open wound. "Oh my god!" Shinji said, getting down on his knees and getting in to a begging position, "I-I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I never meant for this to happen!"  
"His hand's broken," the father said, a bit of relief in his voice, "But it's a clean break so it's not all that bad,"  
He administered a bit of pressure by the wrist area of his son's arm which seemed to stop the bleeding immediately.  
"W-will I ever be able to box again?" Miyata asked his father, putting his hand in the bucket of ice.  
"Yeah," his father said, "But it'll be at least a few months before you can ever consider putting on a glove again,"  
Miyata's lips became a thin line. "Don't worry," the father said, "Ippo suffered a similar injury and look where he ended up. It's just a small setback,"  
Miyata breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness,"  
"I'm really sorry this happened," Shinji said, continuing to beg.  
"Please, get up," Miyata said, blushing a bit, "You're embarrassing me,"  
Shinji got up to his feet, "I'm really sorry,"  
"It's okay," Miyata said, "It's not your fault,"  
"What happened?" the father asked, "How did this happen?"  
Miyata gave a meek smile, "Um, I hit Shinji too hard,"  
"Too hard?" everyone was surprised, even Shinji.  
Miyata blushed slightly, "I wanted to knock Shinji down at least once. However, when he seemed to just keep on brushing off all those blows and kept on going, it started getting me frustrated. That last punch is what did it for me. It seems I don't know my own strength because I punched so hard that I ended up breaking my hand. Heh, what's even worse is that it still didn't seem enough to knock him down,"  
"I'm really sorry," Shinji said.  
"There's nothing to be sorry about," Miyata said, "I dunno what kinda training Makunouchi-san's got you on, but it seems to work because I've never seen someone with such a pain threshold like you,"  
"Um, t-thanks," Shinji blushed.  
The father said nothing. Ippo had a pain threshold like Shinji. In a sense, it was like watching a young Ippo fighting all over again. It was very exciting. It was most unfortunate that his son breaking his hand was the result.  
"Look, let's get you to the hospital," the father said, holding the bucket as his son got to his feet, "They'll have you all fixed up in no time,"  
"Okay," Miyata said.  
The two of them exited the gym, but not before Miyata stopped to say something to Shinji.  
"You're a good fighter, Shinji. Because of this, it seems like your debut match against me won't be happening. However, I look forward to fighting you in the ring one day,"

Shinji rubbed at his cheek which was now black and blue. He and Emiko were walking down the street, on their way toward the train station to head back to MegaTokyo.  
"Man, that punch really hurt," he said.  
"It's all swollen and ugly-looking," Emiko commented. It looked like a dark stain on Shinji's face.  
Shinji smirked, "Thanks. That makes me feel much better,"  
"Sorry," Emiko giggled.  
"I hope Miyata's hand heals okay," Shinji commented, "I feel really bad about what happened, like it's my fault,"  
"He was the one that punched you," Emiko stated, "He should've been a bit cautious about what could happen if he punched you so hard. I think he was so caught up on trying to knock you down that he forgot that he could hurt himself in the process. What I'm a bit upset about is the extent of how hard he hit you,"  
"Huh? What do you mean?"  
"Well, if he punched you hard enough to break his hand in the process, what do you think might've happened to you if you weren't so used to getting punched that hard," Emiko said, "It could've seriously hurt you. In a way, it seemed like he got caught up in the fight and tried to seriously hurt you but ended up seriously hurting himself because he didn't know that you train with Ranma,"  
"Man, I've never thought about it that way," Shinji said, "Now that I think about it, you're right. If I've never trained with Ranma, that punch would've serious hurt me,"  
Emiko shrugged, "However, I think it led to that because of your training. A regular person would've gone down a few times by then. I think it's because you never went down that it led up to this,"  
Shinji said, "Hm, I guess you're right. Anyway, I hope he heals okay,"  
"He will be fine," Emiko said.  
"How do you know?" he asked.  
Emiko held her hand out, "Because I broke my hand once and it healed up just fine,"  
She suddenly stopped as she realized she had just divulged a piece of information no one ever knew about her. This was a personal part of her life that no one was supposed to know about.  
Shinji turned toward her, "Really? You broke your hand? I never knew that,"  
Emiko was silent for a moment, wondering what she should say. She was, in essence, still a ninja, and ninjas weren't supposed to let one's past be known, even for something so trivial as a broken hand.  
"Which hand?" he asked curiously, grabbing both of her small hands with his own, bringing them up to look at them.  
Emiko blushed a deep shade of red but didn't pull her hands away. She felt this warm feeling traveling up through her arms end envelop her. It felt really nice and protective.  
"Ah, it must be this hand," Shinji said, gesturing toward her right hand.  
"How did you know?" she was surprised.  
Shinji contemplated joking and saying 'I didn't but I do now' but chose against it. That was something Ranma would say.  
"The metacarpals feel thicker in this hand than in the other," he commented. "Huh?" she was confused.  
Shinji touched the back of her hand, notably, the ridge by her index finger, "This is where you broke your hand, right?"  
She nodded.  
"These are your metacarpals," he said, "I like anatomy so I'm familiar with bones and muscles and such,"  
He smiled. He found himself liking teaching Emiko about stuff. He definitely enjoyed training her and, in a sense, this was a bit like that.  
"Well, you're right, I did break this part of my hand, this part especially," she said. After a moment of contemplation, she realized there was no harm in telling him, "I was young and was going for a ridge-hand attack on a piece of wood. Unfortunately, I struck it wrong and it broke my hand. It took about two months before it healed,"  
"Wait, in your world, there's magic," Shinji scratched his head, "Couldn't you'dve gotten healed by some cleric or a white-magic user?"  
She shook her head, "No. I just went on pretending I never broke my hand. I couldn't show that my bones could break because it was a sign of weakness..."  
She stopped, surprised at how much she had changed. She had gone from a trained assassin that could tough out an injury like a broken hand to a meek girl that had cried herself to sleep.  
The image of Shinji and Sumi kissing in front the dorm apartment suddenly flashed across Emiko's mind. It made her suddenly depressed.  
Shinji noticed the sudden change in Emiko's demeanor. He had no idea what had caused the change but he suddenly regretted whatever he had said that caused it. He didn't even bother to ask what was wrong, already knowing that she would simply try and dodge the question.  
"Hey, you hungry? Let's go get some food," he suggested, wondering if it was any use.  
Emiko shook his head, "Nah. I'm not hungry. Actually, I'd like to simply go home,"  
Shinji sighed, "Okay,"

"What happened between you and Miyata?" Ippo asked Shinji shortly after Shinji entered the gym, alone. "Man, news travels fast, huh?" Shinji smirked.  
It was only around three in the afternoon. Shinji had gone to the gym by himself to pass the time, figuring rather than walk around aimlessly around MegaTokyo, he could work out. However, it only took him a few minutes to realize that he wasn't all as enthused about working out when Emiko wasn't around. It didn't feel right to work out without her. He had decided to pass his time simply stretching, doing nothing but stretching. He would go home afterwards.  
"I heard from my friend that his son broke his hand sparring against you," Ippo commented, "He didn't really give the details. How come you were there sparring against him in the first place?"  
Shinji wondered about what to say. After a moment he said, "I was merely curious as to what kind of opponent I will be up against for my debut match,"  
"But you've got videos," Ippo said.  
Shinji nodded, "I understand, but they don't seem to help that much. When I was sparring against him, I realized that the videos, although somewhat useful, wasn't as useful as fighting against him,"  
"You've got a point," Ippo nodded, "The videos are basically a substitute to the real thing but they don't quite compare. So tell me, exactly what happened there?"  
"The sparring match was rather intense," Shinji said, "It felt like fighting a heavier and stronger version of Oki. I only managed to hit him a couple of times, but none of them were good enough to knock him down or anything. He probably hit me around five to six more times than I hit him. We only fought about a round and a half. Anyway, halfway in to the second round, I think he got frustrated that he couldn't knock me down after hitting me so hard that he hit me with everything he had. Unfortunately, it only resulted in him breaking his hand and my getting this nasty bruise," Shinji gestured toward the giant bruise under his right eye.  
Ippo was silent for a moment. He contemplated telling Shinji about how his own hand had hurt quite a bit after he had landed that knockout punch during the time they sparred against one another for Shinji's pro test. After a moment, he chose against it.  
"Do you know if he's okay?" Shinji asked curiously.  
Ippo nodded, "Yeah. I broke my hand once, or at least severely damaged it. It didn't effect my boxing one bit and it sure wouldn't effect Miyata. He's a tough kid and will be right back on his feet in no time,"  
"That's good to hear," Shinji smiled.  
"However, because of this, it means your debut match will be delayed," Ippo scratched his head, "I never anticipated that this would happen and it'll be hard finding a person to replace Miyata on such short notice,"  
Shinji shrugged, "Don't worry about it. I don't mind having to wait,"  
"Okay," Ippo smiled.  
Shinji went about stretching for a moment.  
"You know what's weird? For some odd reason, I can't find myself wanting to even stretch, let alone train," Shinji commented from out of the blue.  
Ippo smirked, "Well, perhaps it's because Emiko isn't here to train with you. Where is she anyway? You two train together all the time,"  
"You think that's why?" Shinji asked, "You think that's why I feel unmotivated to train today?"  
Ippo smirked, "Perhaps,"

"Something's been bothering Emiko," Shinji commented as he and Ranma circled one another that night for their usual sparring session. Ranma smirked, "Y'think?"  
"Do you know what it is?" he asked, figuring if anyone would know anything about anything, Ranma would be it. He was so observant and something like that would definitely not escape his notice.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I know what it is. Do you?"  
"That's what I'm hoping you would tell me," Shinji said, "What's bothering her?"  
Ranma grinned, "That's for me to know and you to find out,"  
"Why can't you tell me?" he asked.  
"Hey, I have my reasons," Ranma said, "And let's just leave it at that. You'll find out soon enough. As to when, it's all up to you,"  
"Is it, y'know, that time of month or something?" Shinji asked, blushing slightly.  
Ranma nearly fell to the floor. If he thought about it, such a question wasn't unreasonable.  
Getting back up to his feet, Ranma said, "Why dontcha ask her? Just be ready to die if you do because you never ask a girl that and expect to live afterwards,"  
"Then how come you ask questions like that?" Shinji asked.  
"Because I'm Ranma," Ranma grinned, "I'm notorious for saying stuff without thinking so that's expected,"  
"You really think I'll be able to find out on my own?" Shinji asked, not all that confident that he would figure it out without any help.  
Ranma nodded, "Oh, I'm sure of it,"  
Ranma entered the house, done with sparring session against Shinji.  
"How'd it go?" Akane asked as he entered the kitchen.  
"I beat him," Ranma said, "It's getting a bit disappointing,"  
"What, because he has yet to actually hit you?" Akane smirked.  
Ranma shrugged, "Kinda. He should be able to at least land a blow here and there,"  
Akane smirked, "You have Shinji's progress planned out completely, huh?"  
"More or less," Ranma said, "He's progressing at around the rate of which I expect him to progress,"  
"Why're you so interested in Shinji's progress?" Akane asked, "He's coming along fine. Maybe he's taking his time in his training. Keep in mind that he isn't focusing solely on training. He also practices cello and has school to worry about. You need to take that in to consideration,"  
"I guess you have a point," Ranma shrugged.  
"How far along is he coming with his training?" Akane said, "I remember you mentioning that he's at around the level where you were when you first met Sylia and the others. Is that really true?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yep, minus his use of ki that is. He's basically about as skilled in fighting as I was when I met Sylia and the other first the first time. However, he doesn't know any of this yet,"  
"If Shinji's basically where you are now, then how come he isn't using ki-  
blasts like you did then?" she asked curiously, wondering if Shinji would start to eat like Ranma does.  
Ranma said, "Dontcha remember what I told ya the other day? Shinji can't gather ki like Ryoga and I can. But he can absorb it,"  
"I remember," Akane said, "But still, why does he have this ability? What does this make of him?"  
"This makes him potentially more powerful than Ryoga and I at the time," Ranma said, not one bit ashamed to mention that, "However, that's just in terms of potential. He doesn't have the experience or actual training to be that good. However, given the time, he'll be really powerful,"  
"Um, do you think that's a good idea?" Akane asked, "Y'know, to train Shinji so strictly and become very powerful?"  
"A good idea? Not really," Ranma chuckled, "It's always dangerous to have people become very powerful because there's a chance they can be corrupted by that power,"  
"You think Shinji can get corrupted?" Akane asked.  
Ranma nodded, "Oh yeah. Anyone can. Actually, if you really think about it, he's already getting corrupted,"  
Akane's eyes widened, "H-he is?"  
"Of course," Ranma nodded, "He's already started to prefer fighting his way out of situations than talking like he was supposed to. If he continues to go down the path he's going, he'll become power hungry,"  
Akane felt worried. She knew that Shinji would eventually surpass her. Although they didn't spar, she still knew she could beat him. However, it would only be a matter of time before he would surpass her. "What can we do about it?" she asked.  
"Nothing, really," he replied, "However, Shinji's personality will most likely subconscious prevent him from becoming corrupted,"  
"That's good to hear," she sighed, "Speaking of which, what about you?"  
"Huh?"  
"How come you were never corrupted by how powerful you got?" Akane asked.  
"Dunno," Ranma said, "Maybe it's because I had a purpose, because I wanted to take revenge for what had happened to me. If Shinji was thrown in to such a situation, where he had some ultimate purpose to become insanely powerful, he will,"  
"But Shinji has no purpose to become so powerful," Akane said, "And speaking of which, it seems as if you took it upon yourself to take him under your wsess and train him,"  
"Hey, I train Oki," Ranma said. "Yeah, but it's different," Akane said, "With Shinji, it's as if he were your pet project or something, like you purposely want him powerful or something,"  
"What's wrong with that?" he asked, "If someone, like Shinji, has the potential to become very powerful, then so be it. I don't know if you know this, but Shinji's got a helluva lot of potential to become extremely powerful,"  
Akane shrugged, "I guess you have a point. You think he'll ever become as powerful as you?"  
Ranma laughed.  
"I guess that was a stupid question," Akane smirked, "However, I must say, he showed quite a bit of progress, ever since everyone came back from that little adventure trying to help your God-version of yourself out,"  
Ranma nodded, "I agree,"

Ranma heard the phone ring shortly after Shinji had left for school that Monday morning. He had gotten back from his jog with Luna not too long ago either and was about to get ready to teach morning classes.  
He contemplated letting the answering machine answer but chose against it. He was hoping it was a telemarketer so he could have some fun with them.  
"Yeah?" he asked, picking up the phone.  
"Hello, is there a Shinji Ikari there?" came a voice, a man that wasn't all that fluent in Japanese.  
Ranma looked at the phone receiver for a moment, wondering who could be calling for him. The phone line was under Ranma's name so all solicitors usually called requesting for him.  
"Who wants to know?" Ranma asked.  
"This is Dr. Anson from New York Medical Hospital," the voice said, "I have called to ask a Shinji Ikari a few questions,"  
"Like what?" Ranma asked.  
"Are you Shinji Ikari?" the man asked.  
"Depends on what you say," Ranma said.  
"We really need to talk to him," the man said, "Are you that person?"  
"Are you stupid?" Ranma said, "I told you it depends on what you're calling about. If you don't like it, tough shit,"  
The man paused for a moment before he cleared ngs throat, "This call concerns the blood he gave not too long ago,"  
"Sorry, but you have the wrong number," Ranma said.  
"What? This is the wrong number?" the man said. Ranma laughed, "Yeah, I thought you were a solicitor so I wanted to bust your chops. Unfortunately, this person you're asking for doesn't live here. You have the wrong number,"  
"Oh, I'm sorry," the man said before he hung up.  
Ranma hung up the phone, his lips a thin line.  
"Damn,"

"Hey, Emi-chan," Ranma grinned.  
"Don't call me that," she narrowed her eyes at him. She had been waiting in front of Makunouchi Gym for Shinji's imminent arrival after he was done with classes. It was around five minutes to noon. Shinji usually showed up around ten after, his classes ending at noon exactly and it taking him a bit of time to make his way to the gym.  
Ranma laughed, "Ah, I get it, you'll only get angry at me if call you that. Shinji, on the other hand, you'll probably let slide,"  
"Hmph!" she turned away, trying to hide her blush.  
Ranma laughed, placing a hand on Emiko's small shoulder, "You're so easy to read,"  
She said nothing for several long moments.  
"Why dontcha just tell him that you really like him?" Ranma asked. He quickly jumped in before she opened her mouth to retort, "Don't try and fool me. I knew about you liking Shinji ever since you came back from the other world several months ago. I also knew you started to show an interest in him long before then, when you and Shinji started sparring against one another during the time when I was away,"  
"H-how did you know?"  
Ranma laughed, "I didn't, but I do now,"  
"Hmph!"  
Ranma laughed again, "Actually, I'm just joking around. Luna told me. She saw you and Shinji sparring against one another a long time ago, when you and he and the others traveled to Shinji's old world thinking that I went there to cause Third Impact,"  
Emiko's lips became a thin line. Luna knew? All Emiko and Shinji did was spar against one another. Even she didn't know she started liking him then. How could Luna tell from something like seeing them spar?  
"Luna's every bit as observant as myself," Ranma seemed to read Emiko's mind, "You're not gonna get things by her without her knowing. Also, she can read your mind if she wanted to, much like I can. However, we made a truce to never use that since it's extremely intrusive,"  
Emiko remained silent.  
"Look, I know you're all nervous and such, but this is a hurtle you should get over on your own," Ranma said, secretly rooting for Emiko, "Shinji still doesn't know your feelings for him. I suggest you not wait too long to tell him or it'll be too late,"  
"Y-you really think so?" she asked softly.  
"Hey, Shinji sees you as a really good friend," Ranma commented, "Perhaps as his best friend. The fact that you know each other for quite a while means you've got one up on Sumi. Whether you choose to believe that or not is entirely up to you,"  
"But how do I tell him?" she asked, turning her full attention toward him.  
"It's all up to you,"

Ranma entered A.D. Police Headquarters sometime around half past noon that day. After his brief talk with Emiko and Shinji's eventual arrival, he had headed off.  
Entering the building, he walked up to the reception desk where a young cute-  
looking girl was working.  
"Hey, ," Ranma smirked, leaning up against the counter.  
The girl blushed at the sight of the handsome man before her, "H-hi, R-Ranma," She knew Ranma. He visited the station every now and then, there to drop in on Nene. All the females knew about him. They all knew he was single and up for grabs. Sure, he was always there to talk to Nene and generally pay her a visit, but they all knew that they were just friends and they weren't in some kind of intimate relationship.  
"You haven't been around in a while," the girl composed herself.  
"I know, I should come visit more often," he smiled warmly, "Tell me your work schedule and perhaps I'll come by theynd the time when you're around. It'd be a shame if I came and visited and you weren't here to greet me,"  
The girl blushed again.  
"Anyway, is Nene around? I need to ask her something," he asked.  
"Yes, I'll page her for you," she answered.  
Ranma walked off and sat down by a bench just off to the side of the counter. As he waited, he proceeded to check out the chests and backsides of the female officers as they walked about. "What are you looking at?" came Nene's voice as she approached him stood next to him.  
"What do you think?" Ranma smirked, standing up and turning toward her, "The women in here are pretty and have nice bodies,"  
Nene sighed. Why does she even bother? "Of course, they all pale in comparison to you," Ranma added, grinning.  
Nene blushed.  
Ranma placed and arm around her, "Come get some lunch,"  
"But I'm working," she replied.  
"So?" he didn't seem to care.  
Nene smirked. As independent a woman as she was, she couldn't help but liking a man that took control of the situation, a man that knew exactly what he wanted and wasn't scared about coming off as demanding. She quickly excused herself and headed out to tell her supervisor that she was going to head out for lunch early. Before long, she was back and the two of them left the building.  
"So, what brings you here?" Nene asked.  
"I came to visit and ask you for a favor," he said, not really all that worried what Nene thought.  
"A favor?" she asked.  
"Actually, it concerns doing something for Shinji,"  
Shinji and Emiko came home at the usual time, sometime around two-thirty.  
Ranma bumped in to the two of them as he was on his way down the stairs. He noticed several welts on Shinji's face.  
"Damn, your face is all messed up," Ranma smirked, "It looks like you've got bruises on top of your bruises. What happened?"  
"Oki did this to me," Shinji said, "Oki's skill jumped incredibly in the past week or so since you started training him,"  
Ranma laughed, "That good. It means my training him is coming along fine,"  
"He's so hard to beat," Shinji sighed, "It feels like I'm fighting him for the very first time all over again. I find myself unable to hit him,"  
"That's because I focused on speed training for him," Ranma said, "He should be very hard to hit. Oki's a small guy so he takes a lot of damage if he gets hit. Because of this problem, I focused on making him very fast so he wouldn't get hit,"  
Shinji rubbed at his neck, "Still. I think he's speed doubled. He hit me several times and I didn't even see him punch me,"  
"Heh, it seems his training's coming along fine then," Ranma smiled.  
"What kinda training are you giving him?" Shinji asked curiously.  
"Nothing much different than what I'm giving you," Ranma shrugged, "Where your training focuses on power, his is on speed,"  
Shinji sighed, "Still,"  
"Don't worry," Ranma said, "You'll get used to it soon enough,"  
"You think where he is now he'll be able to win that tournament about, what, a month and a half from now?"  
Ranma shook his head, "Not yet. However, if he continues to train with the same dedication as he does now, then when the tournament does come around, he'll easily win,"  
"That's good to hear,"

Shinji and Emiko entered the gym the next day. As they were stretching and getting ready to do their roadwork, Ippo approached them.  
"Shinji, I've got some good news," Ippo said, "I've found you a replacement for your debut match," "Really?"  
He nodded, "Yeah. It'll be at the same time as your original scheduled debut match so that means you've got under two weeks left,"  
Shinji smiled, "That's fine. I think I can be ready in two weeks,"  
"I really don't know," Ippo said, "Your opponent's one weight class lighter than you. He's a Light Heavyweight so you're gonna hafta somehow lose around ten pounds to be able to fight. Do you think you'll be able to make it? Losing ten pounds in two weeks is doable, but it's very hard,"  
"I can do it," Shinji said, excited, "I'll hafta switch my diet,"  
"That's for sure,"  
"No, I don't think you should do it,"  
"What? Why not?" Shinji was surprised that Ranma would say something like that. He had just asked for Ranma's comments on him dropping a weight class to fight his replacement opponent for Ichiro Miyata. He and Emiko had gotten home from the gym not too long ago.  
The both of them were in the kitchen at that time.  
"I don't think you should do it," Ranma said, "Dropping weight will make you significantly weaker than what you are now,"  
"Oh," he said sadly, "Well, couldn't I regain that back after the match?"  
"You can, but the time where you could be spending getting stronger will be used gaining back the strength you lost," Ranma commented, "We can't have that happening," "We can't? Why not?" Shinji scratched his head, "I've already noticed that I'm significantly stronger than anyone I know, because you and Ryoga of course. However, me being a bit weaker than what I am now will still be significantly stronger than most people,"  
"That's true," Ranma shrugged, "However, I still don't think you should do so. I prefer you do not do so,"  
"Hm, I guess I can't argue against that," Shinji said, a bit reluctant, "As much as I would like to fight, I guess it's recommended that I follow your advice,"  
"Cool," Ranma smiled, "I'm glad you see it that way,"  
"Well, I'm gonna go take a shower now," Shinji said, leaving the kitchen, "I'll talk to Ippo tomorrow and decline the offer,"  
Shortly after Shinji left, Akane entered the kitchen.  
"Sorry, but I overheard the conversation," Akane stated, "I just wanted to ask you something,"  
"What is it?"  
"How come you don't want Shinji losing weight for his debut match a couple of weeks from now?" she asked, "What's wrong with him losing a bit of strength? He can always gain it back after he is done with his fight,"  
"Well, since you overheard the conversation, then that means you also overheard my reply," Ranma smirked, "I don't want him wasting time gaining back strength where he could be spending it getting stronger,"  
"I don't get it," Akane scratched her head, "Why do you want Shinji getting so strong? He's already plenty strong,"  
"He is strong," Ranma agreed, "But he's not strong enough,"  
"Compared to you and Ryoga, of course not," Akane said, "However, you two are basically evolutionary steps above him. You're some kinda Angel and Ryoga had undergone some so-called 'Mystic' training over in whatever world he was during the time we were all battling those Angels. Shinji's never going to become as strong as you guys,"  
"Perhaps,"  
The next day at the gym, Shinji approached Ippo and declined the replacement fight for his debut match. He felt a bit disappointed but believed it was for the better.  
"Are you sure?" Ippo asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Ranma believed it was best that I not fight and I believe his advice is a good thing to take,"  
Ippo shrugged, "Well, Ranma's advice is something you should never dismiss so I guess it's all good. However, I'll go about getting a Cruiserweight willing to fight you for your debut match. It won't be all that hard,"  
"Oh?"  
"Well, you're new to boxing," Ippo said, "Any experienced boxer would want to fight and inexperienced boxer because they would consider it an easy win. However, they'll be in for a surprise when they realize that you fight much better than expected even though you just recently became a pro,"  
"I guess you have a point,"

Shinji and Emiko jogged along quietly.  
Emiko found herself stealing glances toward Shinji from time to time. Since she had talked to Ranma in front of the gym, she had yet to muster the courage to tell Shinji of her feelings. However, she couldn't help but feel a bit happy as well.  
Ranma had said that Shinji most likely viewed her as his best friend. She was very happy with being considered his best friend. It also made her wonder if what Ranma said was true, that she had one up on Sumi. This was because Emiko and Shinji had been through quite a bit over time and it was only natural for them to know each other very well.  
"What, do I have something on my face?" Shinji asked, noticing Emiko regarding him longer than usual.  
She blushed slightly, a bit embarrassed, "Oh, no. N-nothing like that,"  
"Oh," he said, "It's just that I saw you staring at me and thought it was because of something I had on my face,"  
"It's nothing," she said.  
The two of them continued on with their jog, heading in the direction of the park.  
One of these days, she would tell him her feelings.  
Once she mustered the courage that is.

Friday rolled around. Shinji found himself eager to go to Friday dinner with Sumi once again.  
"Are you busy tonight?" Shinji asked, a bit hopeful.  
"Unfortunately, I will," she said.  
"Oh?"  
"I'm heading back home to Kyoto for the weekend," Sumi said.  
"Oh," Shinji found himself very disappointed.

"Um, is Sumi coming out to Friday dinner tonight?" Emiko asked nervously.  
"Not this time around," Shinji shook his head.  
Emiko and Shinji were on their way home from Makunouchi Gym. Emiko had mixed feelings about what to ask. She really wanted to know of Shinji's feelings toward Sumi but she also didn't want to know as well. She knew Shinji liked Sumi and was curious as to just how much he liked her, but she was also scared that he really liked her.  
"Um, why not?" she asked after a short pause.  
"She's heading home to Kyoto for the weekend," he said.  
"Really?" Emiko couldn't help but feel a bit happy.  
"Yeah," he said with a shrug, "But I guess it couldn't be helped. She told me she had to go home to help out at her mom's restaurant, just this weekend it seems,"  
"Oh," Emiko said.  
The two of them stopped off in front of the deli where they usually grabbed a quick bite to eat on their way home from the gym.  
"How you doing, Wei?" Shinji greeted the deli owner.  
"Couldn't be better," the deli owner smiled warmly, "The usual?"  
Shinji looked at Emiko. She nodded.  
"Yeah," he said.  
When the deli owner walked off to prepare their order, Emiko smiled. It's really amazing how much Shinji had changed over the months, all for the better. He usually initialized conversation with people he didn't know and didn't seem to have any problem even initializing a conversation with random people.  
"Ooh, I've got good news," Shinji said.  
You realized that you and Sumi don't make a good couple and have broken up with her? Emiko thought that but knew that was not the case.  
"What?" she asked curiously.  
"I've got the hang of jumping," he smiled, "I finally started realizing my leg strength and how much power I'm supposed to put behind my jumps,"  
"Really? I haven't seen you hopping on rooftops or anything," Emiko was surprised.  
Shinji blushed slightly, "Well, I usually do it only on the way to school and on the way back. However, I usually do it when you nor anyone could see me. It's really embarrassing when I mess up,"  
Emiko giggled. That definitely sounded like Shinji. He never liked being embarrassed. But then again, neither did anyone else.  
"I'm eager to see how much you've improved," she smiled.

The wind coursing through her hair as she leapt through air felt refreshing. She was following closely besides Shinji and he went about running along the rooftops, hopping from one rooftop to the next.  
He wasn't as fast traveling on the rooftops than on the ground, but it would all be a matter of time before he would be moving along as fast as her. At the current moment, his speed was probably about a quarter of Emiko's speed.  
"You're doing really well," Emiko praised him, very surprised at his progress. About a week ago he was misgauging my jumps and overshooting entire rooftops and ending up crashing in to the side of the neighboring house.  
"Thanks," Shinji said, proud of himself.  
Unfortunately, feeling good about himself, he momentarily forgot that he was supposed to be concentrating on his jumping. Because of this, he accidentally jumped too hard and ended up sailing clear over the entire length of a rooftop, crashing stomach-first in to overhanging edge of the roof of the neighboring house.  
"Oof," Shinji found the wind knocked out of him. However, he managed to react in time to grab on to the gutter as gravity took effect. Before he even realized what was going on, he found himself hanging completely from the gutter by both arms.  
Emiko came to a halt right by the end of the rooftop where Shinji was hanging.  
"Are you all right?" she asked, giggling slightly.  
"Yeah," he said, "I'll have you know that this is the first time in the past two days since I messed up,"  
"I believe you," she said.  
Shinji chuckled as he proceeded to pull himself up. Unfortunately, he didn't managed to get back up on to the roof because the gutter broke out from under his weight and began to slowly bend downward.  
"Oh oh!" Shinji's face became pale as he realized that he had a two-story drop before hitting the ground and he had yet to learn how to land correctly without hurting himself.  
"Shinji!" Emiko shouted out. She reached out and grabbed a hold of Shinji's hands in an attempt to prevent him from falling. Unfortunately, it was no use, she being too weak to hold Shinji's weight.  
She shrieked in surprise as she suddenly found herself falling down as Shinji's heavy weight brought her down with him.  
They both screamed in shock but Shinji was able to do something of use. He managed to twist himself in mid-air and actually position himself so that he was directly below Emiko. This would allow him to hit the ground first, she landing on top of him, cushioning her fall.  
Shinji landed on the floor ground hard. It also didn't help any as Emiko landed on his stomach, the wind getting knocked out of him for the second time.  
"A-are you okay?" Shinji asked first. This surprised Emiko quite a bit. It was shocking that he was able to recover from what had transpired to ask first.  
"Um, I should be asking you the same," Emiko said, blushing as she got off of Shinji.  
Shinji rubbed at his shoulder, "I'm okay. I landed on my side and my shoulder feels a bit tender, but I'm otherwise okay. How about you?"  
"I'm fine, um, thanks to you," she blushed. She wondered if it weren't for Shinji, would she had landed unscathed?  
After a short moment, they found themselves laughing at the hilarity of the situation. If one thought about what had just happened, it was actually quite funny.  
After a quick spout of laughter, the two of the found themselves staring at one another as they sat on the ground. Shinji's heart suddenly started beating rapidly as a sudden image of him and Emiko kissing flashed in his mind. Emiko's heart was already beating rapidly. She remembered reading in that relationship book that a kiss usually just 'happened'. Would this be such a situation where it would supposedly 'happen'? The two of them seemed to instinctively lean toward one another as if they were about to kiss. However, before they could kiss, the gutter Shinji had been hanging from finally fell off the edge of the roof and hit Shinji on the top of the head, breaking the almost intimacy of the situation.  
"Ow," Shinji rubbed at the top of his head.  
Emiko was silent, inwardly cursing that fallen gutter. She was very sure that they would had kissed if Shinji hadn't gotten hit on top of his head like that. "Are you okay?" she asked.  
"Yeah, I'm okay," Shinji replied as he got up to his feet.  
I think I almost kissed Emiko, Shinji thought. What the heck is wrong with me? What compelled me to try something like that? Man, thank goodness I got hit in the head like that. If I tried something like that, she would hate me for trying to take advantage of our friendship like that. She would be weirded out by my stepping over the bounds of our friendship to do something like that. He helped Emiko to her feet.  
"C'mon, let's head home," he said.  
"Okay," she said softly. Emiko felt a bit sad that they didn't kiss. However, she realized that Sumi would not be around to complicate things. She had Shinji all to herself for the entire weekend.  
She would tell him of her feelings sometime this weekend.

new stuff 11/9

Shinji and Emiko came home and saw a beat up looking station wagon sitting in front of the house.  
The two of them looked at the car. It looked like it was made around twenty years ago and had rust holes all over the side. It was an ugly shade of red and brown and had a coat hanger for an antenna.  
"Oh man," Shinji said, "Ranma really did buy a car, a station wagon of all cars. And not only that, a used one,"  
Emiko looked at the make-shit antenna, "What's this?"  
"It's a coat hanger," Shinji replied, "Jeez, I've heard stories about coat hangers being used for antennas, but I never believed I would actually see one,"  
He walked around the side of the car and looked inside. He noticed that the interior ceiling of the car was sagging.  
"Oh jeez," Shinji said, "This is one disgusting car,"  
"I don't know anything about cars, but this thing sure is ugly," Emiko commented, not really caring if Ranma was around to hear them.  
"You're telling me," Shinji agreed.  
"Damn, this car is kinda like the sun meaning you shouldn't actually look directly at it," Shinji smirked.  
Emiko giggled. The two of the entered the house where they saw Ranma sitting in front of the couch, Lina scooted off to the side watching television. He was reading what looked like a car instruction manual.  
"Is that that car outside the one you bought?" Shinji jerked his thumb toward the window.  
Ranma smiled, "Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?"  
"Why?" was all Shinji could ask.  
"Huh?"  
"Of all cars, why would you buy a car like that?" he asked, "It's a station wagon!"  
"So?"  
Shinji sighed. Ever since he had heard from Priss that Ranma was interested in getting a car, Shinji had nurtured the thought that he could ask to borrow Ranma's car one day. Since money was not an issue with Ranma, Shinji figured Ranma would've spent an exuberant sum of money on a top-of-the-line car. This seemed anything but the case.  
"The car looks a bit shabby right now, but we can have it fixed up in no time," Ranma smiled, "I've never worked on cars before and I figure it'd be a good project to work on for now. I can learn as I go along,"  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess you've got a point, but still, it's a station wagon,"  
"I know," Ranma smiled, "Cool, ain't it?"  
"Um,"  
"It'll be really useful later on after I get it fixed up," Ranma added.  
"Well, at least it'll be fast," Shinji commented, "Priss has a McLaren F1 engine stored in her garage and it seems like it can be used for this car. But then again, perhaps it's not possible since the engine is designed for McLaren F1 and not a station wagon,"  
"Hm, a car engine? That would be useful," Ranma said, "It'll help make the car move. At the moment, there's no engine in that car,"  
"T-there's no engine in there? You bought that car without an engine?" Shinji's eyes widened, "How the heck did you get it home?"  
"I carried it," Ranma said matter-of-factly.  
Shinji fell to the floor, "What? First off, if you're strong enough to carry a damn car home, why the heck would you want to get a car to carry stuff like sheetrock? That doesn't make sense!"  
"Sheetrock makes my hands dirty," Ranma said.  
Shinji fell to the floor again.  
"Besides," Ranma shrugged, "It's not just sheetrock I plan on using the car for,"  
"Then what other stuff?" Shinji asked curiously.  
"Stuff that's really heavy," Ranma smiled.  
"You carried a car! And you wear those thousand pound bracers. What do you consider heavy?" Shinji asked.  
"Who knows,"

"I bought a car," Ranma smiled as he and everyone sat around a large round table for Friday dinner.  
"Really? What kind?" Linna asked. She liked guys with great-looking cars and was eager to see what kind of car that would seem fitting for Ranma.  
"A station wagon," Ranma said, "I dunno the year or make it is though,"  
"A station wagon?" several of the females said in surprise.  
"What's a station wagon?" Luna and Lina and Emiko asked in unison.  
Sylia waved a dismissive hand, "It's not all that important. You'll see it soon enough,"  
"Why're you guys all surprised?" Ranma said, "It's a cool car,"  
Everyone was silent. Ranma had some really weird tastes.  
"If you're interested, I have a spare engine we can attempt to have fitted in to that car," Priss said, "It'll be tricky trying to get a rear-mounted engine in to a front-mounted car, but it's doable,"  
"Cool," Ranma said.  
"So tell me, what prompted you to buy a station wagon of all cars?" Misato asked, "It seems rather odd a car,"  
"It can carry lots of weight," Ranma smiled.  
Everyone seemed to fall out of their chairs.

Shinji was looking through the newspaper when Emiko entered the livingroom. It was somewhere around ten and they had been home only a short time since Friday dinner. Lina was not in the livingroom at the time, having retired to her bedroom to sleep, she always wanting to sleep after a fulfilling meal.  
"Whatcha looking at?" Emiko asked, approaching the couch.  
"Just scanning through the newspaper," Shinji said.  
Emiko stood silently for a moment, wondering if she should ask to sit down next to him or simply do so without asking. After a moment, her answer seemed to have been answered as she saw Shinji scoot over on the couch.  
"Um, thanks," she said, sitting down next to him.  
As she sat there, she wondered what she should be doing now now that she was sitting next to him. How should she occupy herself? Should she grab the remote and turn on the television and pretend she was watching? But wouldn't the noise from it distract Shinji from whatever he was doing? But then again, she just sitting there would probably be more distracting since it would definitely prove for an awkward situation.  
"What are you looking for?" she figured she might as well try and indulge in conversation. Sure, she talked to him all the time, but she didn't seem to mind talking to him more and it seemed to mutual.  
"Just looking for the movie listing," Shinji answered without looking up, "It's Friday and new movies usually come out then. I'm just checking to see what new movies came out today,"  
He continued scanning. After a short while, he found the movie listings.  
Emiko looked over toward the movie listings as well, curious as well. She found herself liking movies. But then again, it could be because she went with Shinji that made it enjoyable.  
"Wow, that's a movie?" Emiko's eyes widened. She gestured toward the advertisement for a manga title of the same that was recently made in to a movie. It was called 'Hearts of Blossoms'.  
Shinji smirked, "Yeah. It came out last week. Hey, now that I think of it, wouldn't you be interested in that movie? I remember seeing you reading that manga the other day,"  
"Yes, I was. That's why I was so surprised," Emiko said.  
"You're interested in seeing it?" he asked. It was an anime movie and he didn't care all that much about anime. If he thought about it, Ranma liked anime and probably wouldn't mind going with her.  
Emiko nodded, "Yes, I'm very interested. Um, er, w-would you like to go see it?"  
She took her cue. If she expressed an interest in something, it would make it easier for Shinji to see it with her, provided he was interested in seeing the movie as well.  
Shinji glanced at the advertisement and then back at Emiko. He felt a bit iffy about seeing an anime movie. He had only read around a quarter way through the manga before he lost interest. There was no action or fighting or anything of the like. It was a bishonen manga that focused on a girl having to choose between two guys. It was something that definitely didn't appeal to him. In a sense, it was a chick flick.  
"Um, Ranma likes anime and manga," Shinji gave slight smile, "I think he would like to see it,"  
"Oh," Emiko seemed disappointed.  
Shinji noticed the disappointed look immediately. What was wrong with her and Ranma going to see the movies together? They both like anime so it'd be fun for the both of them. Emiko opened her mouth, about to say 'I would rather go with you' but the words seemed to fail her, she too nervous to say so.  
"What, you want me to come as well?" Shinji figured he'd ask. "Yes," she said without thought.  
"Um, okay," Shinji said.  
At that moment, Ranma entered the livingroom. "Ah, perfect timing," Shinji said, "What are you doing now?"  
"What?" Ranma asked, "I was on my way to the kitchen. I'm hungry,"  
"Hungry? We just got back from eating," Shinji commented.  
"So?"  
Shinji sighed, "Forget I asked,"  
"Why, what didja wanna ask me?" Ranma asked.  
"Would you like to come see a movie with Emiko and I?" Shinji asked.  
Emiko found herself holding her breath. She was expecting it to only be her and Shinji. However, she soon realized that it was perfectly understandable for Shinji to ask Ranma since Ranma liked anime and asking him to see an anime movie was only natural.  
"Me? With you and Emiko?" Ranma pointed at himself.  
"Yeah," Shinji nodded.  
Ranma cast a glance toward Emiko. He smirked before he turned back toward Shinji, "No thanks. Don't like movies,"  
"Are you sure? We're gonna go see 'Hearts of Blossoms'," Shinji commented.  
"'Hearts of Blossom'? That's a manga," Ranma perked an eyebrow.  
"Yeah, it's now animated. Since you like anime, it might be right up your alley,"  
"Ooh, I never knew that," Ranma said, scratching his chin, "That sounds rather tempting,"  
"So you wanna go?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma pretended he thought about it for a moment before he said, "Nope,"  
"No?"  
"Not interested," Ranma said, "I've read the manga. If it's anything like what I've read, then it's a chick flick,"  
Shinji chuckled. Ranma didn't seem to mind being tactless. Guys should usually be more tactful about what he said about movies being 'chick flicks' when in the presence of a female.  
"You and Emiko can go," Ranma said, "When's it start?"  
"In fifteen minutes," Shinji said.  
"Well, you two better hurry on up and get going," Ranma grinned, "Or you're gonna miss it,"  
"We're only ten minutes from the movie theatre," Shinji said, "We should go ask Akane and the others to see if they're interested. Dontcha think so, Emiko?"  
"Um..." Emiko was at a loss of words.  
Ranma shooed the two of them away, "Get going. It's Friday night so there're a new movies out. You're not going to make it in time if you don't leave now since there'll be a line for the new movies that's out now and you two'll need to wait on that same line to get your own tickets,"  
"I guess you've got a point," Shinji said.  
Shinji and Emiko got up from the couch.  
"Well, let's get going," Shinji said to Emiko, "Perhaps the next time we go see a movie, we can ask the others,"  
"Um, okay," she smiled slightly.  
The two of them said their goodbyes and headed for the door. However, Emiko cast a backwards glance and saw Ranma wink at her. She didn't need to hear him say anything but she knew what was on his mind.  
He had purposely not gone with them so that she and Shinji would be seeing it alone.  
Shinji and Emiko arrived at the movie theatre with five minutes to spare. They actually would've arrived sooner had Shinji taken to the rooftops but he had chosen to stick with taking the sidewalks. "Man, there's a long line," Shinji commented.  
The two of them walked up to the line and waited to get their tickets.  
"I'm excited about the movie," Emiko smiled warmly.  
"I hope it's good," Shinji gave a meek smile. He knew he wasn't going to like it one bit. Sure, he liked movies, but he didn't like movies like what they were going to see tonight.  
However, when he noticed the excited look on Emiko's face at being able to see the movie, it didn't seem all that bad. If she was going to walk away from this movie happy, then perhaps him having to suffer through it wouldn't be all for nothing.  
"Shinji," Emiko's voice broke him from his reverie.  
"Huh?" he looked forward. To his surprise, he realized that Emiko was standing a good distance ahead of him. He had seemed to have been so deep in thought that he didn't realize the line had moved on ahead.  
Realizing this, he quickly ran up to catch up to Emiko.  
Emiko and Shinji emerged from the movie theatre at around midnight.  
"Um, what did you think of the movie?" she dared to ask. She didn't really know what to say.  
"It was surprisingly good," Shinji said, "I didn't realize that it would become very complicated. I guess I should've kept on reading the manga instead of stopping. I didn't know that a second boy would be introduced that made things more complicated for the girl,"  
"Um, w-what do you think of the ending?" she dared to ask. The movie was exactly like the manga she read. It resulted in the girl realizing that she had been in love with her guy friend all the time. It made Emiko wonder if that could happen for the reverse role, if Shinji would realize something like that.  
"I was expecting the girl to go with the second guy, not the friend," Shinji commented, "Sure, the first guy was a friend, but the girl liked the second guy,"  
"The girl liked the guy but she didn't even realize that she was in love with her friend either," Emiko said, wondering if Shinji was going to get the point.  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess. But still..."  
Emiko found herself feeling a bit sad. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking on her part. That was the movies. This was real life. Not everything in real life was so easy to predict.  
"The author of the manga is female, right?" Shinji asked, smirking.  
"Yes, why?" Emiko asked.  
"Heh, I guess that's why it ended up with the two guys confronting each other and just talking it out," Shinji smirked, "It would've been cool if they started beating the crap outta each other, but I guess it being from a female author, she would never have something like that happen,"  
Emiko's eyes widened, "Y-you think it would be cool if two people liking the same person fought each other?"  
Shinji chuckled, "Not necessarily cool. However, it would provide for a cool action scene. There was not one action scene in that entire movie and a fight between those two guys would've helped liven up the movie,"  
Emiko giggled.  
"I guess an author's gender helps indicate the flow of the story," Shinji shrugged, "Where a female writer would most likely focus on the conversational and emotional aspect of a story, a male writer would probably focus more on action,"  
Emiko smirked, "What happens if a story or series starts off with a lot of action and tapers off to nothing but talking and emotions and such? What gender would the author be?"  
"I don't think that happens in stories," Shinji said, "So we'll never know,"  
Emiko giggled.  
Perhaps Shinji was right.

Shinji and Emiko were on their way to the gym that Saturday afternoon when they bumped in to Ranma. Since Ranma seemed to wander around fairly often, they weren't all that surprised to see him. And since he was kind of weird, at least from their point of view, they didn't seem all that surprised to see him doing something rather odd. Today, he was carrying with him a large box and a book.  
"Hey, guys," Ranma approached them.  
"Hey, Ranma," both of them greeted him.  
"How was the movie?" he asked, "Was it any good or was it a complete chick flick?"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, it wasn't all that bad. And yes, it was a chick flick," Of course, he didn't say that last sentence aloud.  
Ranma laughed, "If you say so,"  
"What's that you have?" Emiko gestured toward the book in Ranma's hands.  
"It's a book about welding," Ranma said, looking down on the book, "And this box I have here in my hands is a blow torch,"  
"Huh?" both of them looked at him oddly.  
"A book on welding and a blowtorch," Ranma repeated, gesturing.  
"Why?" Emiko asked.  
"Ah, I think I know why," Shinji guessed, "Since there's no engine in that station wagon, you're gonna try and put it in yourself and that requires some welding. Am I right?"  
Ranma smirked, "Not bad. That's one of the reasons, yeah,"  
"One of the reasons? What other reasons is there?" Emiko asked.  
Ranma shrugged, "It's not all that important. I figure while I'm learning about working on cars, I'll learn about welding also. I'm probably gonna be customizing parts on the car and I would much rather do it myself,"  
"I guess you have a point," the two of them said.  
"Anyway, it's best that I leave you two alone to go about with your training so I'm gonna get going now," Ranma began walking off, "I'll see you guys at home,"  
"Okay," they both said.  
Shinji and Emiko watched as Ranma disappeared around the corner. They then went in to the gym and went about stretching in preparation for their upcoming jogging.  
"Man, I remember how shocked I was way back then when I found out Ranma jogs twenty miles a day every morning," Shinji commented, "However, I've come to realize that it's actually not that hard since we now do that much on a daily basis,"  
Emiko smiled, "It is easy once you get used to it,"  
"It's so shocking how far I've come along," he continued, "Around five months ago, I was gasping for breath after jogging even a mile, but now, it's completely different,"  
"It's all because your body got used to it," she stated.  
As they continued on with their stretching, Ippo approached them.  
After they greeted each other, Ippo said, "I've got some good news. We've found you a new opponent for your debut match,"  
"Really? Already?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
"Yeah," Ippo nodded, "It's set for exactly two weeks from now at Kajura Hall. There'll be no weight class changes so you'll be fighting as a Cruiserweight,"  
"Who's my opponent?" Shinji asked curiously.  
"His name is Kenjo Manichi," Ippo said, "He's a rookie just like you. However, he's only fought a few time before. He has one win, one loss, and one draw. I want to get you a better opponent but considering you've yet to have a debut match, I guess it's best to settle with him as an opponent instead of none at all,"  
"I guess you have a point," Shinji shrugged, "What gym does he go to?"  
"Hanko Gym. I don't know much about the gym or even where it's located, which is guess is good," Ippo smirked.  
"Good? How so?"  
"That way, you don't go visiting him at his gym and end up making him break his hand hitting you like your last opponent," Ippo smirked.  
Shinji gave a meek smile.

Emiko and Shinji walked home together after the gym. Their workout had gone about without much incident. They stopped in at their usual deli to grab a their usual meal. After getting their orders, they sat down on the bench just outside the deli and proceeded to eat.  
"How goes your sparring against Asuka?" Shinji asked from out of the blue.  
Emiko smiled happily, "Pretty good, actually. I think I'm slowly pulling ahead,"  
"That's good to hear," Shinji said.  
"All thanks to you and your training," she said softly, a bit nervous.  
Shinji blushed, "It's no problem. I'm glad I could be of help,"  
"Um," Emiko began.  
"Yes?" he turned toward her.  
"Speaking of sparring, I remember a while ago asking you about a sparring match after you became pro," she said, "Do you remember?"  
"I remember that," Shinji smiled, "Actually, I never forgot about it. Heh, I was kinda hoping you forgot,"  
"What, you're not interested in sparring against me?" Emiko asked.  
Shinji held up his hands defensively, "No, nothing like that. It's just...I dunno...weird,"  
Emiko said nothing, not really knowing what to say.  
"How come you wanna spar against me all of a sudden?" he asked. From his point of view, it seemed unnecessary. He was the one training her so it was a good indication that he was better than her. However, if he thought about it more, he sparred against Ranma and Ranma was obviously better than him. Emiko shrugged, "I dunno. I guess I'm just curious. Keep in mind the last time we sparred was around the time when we were searching for Ranma after he disappeared and went out to cause Third Impact on another world. I'd really like to see how much better you've gotten since then,"  
Shinji scratched the back of his head, "Are you really sure you want to spar me?"  
"What, you think I'm not good enough?" she smirked.  
"No, n-nothing like that," he quickly said.  
"Then what's the problem?" she asked.  
Shinji sighed, "When do you want to spar?"  
"How about tonight, sometime after we get home?"

Shinji felt very weird as he circled around Emiko in the dojo. Both of them were wearing their dogi and standing a short distance apart from one another. No one was around observing, the thought of being watched making him very nervous. This was a good thing.  
I'm worried I might accidentally hurt her, Shinji thought. I don't even know my own strength and I'm currently used to fighting against Ranma. Since she isn't Ranma, I hafta be very careful about what I do. However, she doesn't want me going easy on her and will know I'm holding back if I don't attack.  
"You ready?" Emiko asked. Shinji nodded, "Y-yeah,"  
He felt very self-conscious of himself. The front of Emiko's dogi was opened slightly and he could see her cleavage. She had very nice breasts and it was very hard not to notice. It also didn't help that she was wearing what looked like a black bra which made it much more noticeable when it peeked out up from the front opening of the white dogi.  
Emiko didn't need to spar against Shinji to already know that he was better than her. She simply wanted to know just how much better he was. She had watched him spar against Ranma many times. Sure, Ranma always fought lightly but his fighting lightly was still vastly better than anyone she had ever fought. For Shinji to be able to dodge some of Ranma's half-assed attacks was an inhuman feat, a feat she doubted she could perform.  
I've got weight and power over her, Shinji thought. However, she's much more skilled and faster. I don't want to hit her, but she'll know I'm trying to avoid attacking if I don't. What the heck am I supposed to do?  
Emiko dashed in with a combination of attacks, Shinji dodging all of them except for the last one, a punch hitting him right in the chest. Emiko's speed was astounding, beyond what he had originally thought. He was barely able to dodge her attacks.  
"A-are you okay?" Emiko's eyes widened, concern in her voice.  
Shinji gave a slight smile, "Yeah, I'm fine,"  
He noticed that Emiko was insanely fast lacked any form of power. If he thought about it, he could've been struck by all of Emiko's attack and not had been all that hurt.  
They circled one another once again. When Shinji realized Emiko was taking no attempt to attack again, he realized that she was expecting him to attempt his own offense.  
Realizing that he could not bring himself to ever attack Emiko with a punch or a kick, he figured it was best to attempt a grapple attack. If he got her in a submissive move, it would mean him not needing to risk hurting her in anyway. He had very good control over his grappling attacks and knew the exact amount of strength required to stop someone from attacking him without hurting them.  
He could do something like put her in an armbar or something along those lines. She would not be able to attack him and would soon give up since she was aware of grappling attacks and realized the futility of continuing trying to attack.  
Shinji dashed in in an attempted takedown. He would simply grab her and just drop his weight and cause her to fall. She was not strong enough to support his weight so she would have to fall. He hoped the fall would not hurt her. He found it a bit strange that Emiko made no attempt to dodge. However, he realized too late that she had extended one of her arms forward and allowed him to grab her when he suddenly saw her use her free arm to grab his forearm. He suddenly found his grabbing arm twisted in an awkward angle which sent him flipping toward the side where he landed on the floor.  
Shinji found himself looking up at the dojo ceiling. He started realizing that Emiko had just executed a technique he had showed her not too long ago. What was even more funny was that he reacted in the exact same was as a random assailant, instinctively grabbing at the extended arm.  
"Are you okay?" she asked, concerned again.  
He chuckled as he flipped up to his feet, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just surprised that you used it on me just shortly after I taught you that move,"  
"Wow, it really does work," Emiko said, smiling.  
"Yeah, it does," he rubbed at his arm.  
Shinji, realizing that it was best to try and end the session quickly dashed in again. Once again, he instinctively grabbed Emiko's extended hand. Once again, he found his arm being twisted in an awkward angle. However, much like Ranma, he wasn't going to fall for the same move twice.  
Emiko yelped in surprise as her attempted throw was reversed. Before she realized what happened, she found herself completely off-balance as Shinji pressed a hand against the small of her back, causing her to bend backward and falling to the floor, Shinji coming down on her, attempting to mount on her.  
To his surprise, Emiko had managed to react in time as she fell backwards to bring her legs up and wrap them around his waist, putting him in her in the guard position.  
"Ya give up?" he asked, hoping she would. However, he had a funny feeling she would not. She was actually in a better position than he was, she having Shinji in the guard position. If Shinji had her in a mounted position, he would've been in a significantly better position.  
He placed one of his hands on Emiko's forearms to keep her arm from moving. This would prevent her from attempting to execute a triangle choke on him, a move that required her bringing her legs up and wrapping them around his neck and one of his arms. She needed both her arms to keep one of his arms stationary while she did so or the move would fail.  
Emiko tried to free her seized arm in an attempt to execute the one move Shinji was preventing her from doing. Before she knew what happened, Shinji reached his other hand out and slipped it through the small crook in the back of one of her wrapping legs and slipped out from under her legs and mounted her, sitting on her stomach, careful not to rest all of his weight on her and risk crushing her.  
Shinji smirked, "Ya give up?"  
Emiko struggled to break free from being mounted by Shinji, much to no avail.  
Shinji leaned forward, his face close to hers, "I'm sorry, but there's no use to continue on. You're not gonna break free from this position,"  
Emiko knew Shinji was right, that there was no way she was going to break free from that position. However, she had to try, to make sure without a shadow of a doubt that she had lost that fight.  
Realizing that Shinji's weight was slightly off-balance, she arched her back, hopping the shifted weight and the momentum of her arching her back was enough to cause him to fall forward completely and off of her. The result was similar to what she had wanted, but had happened caught her and Shinji completely off-guard. Shinji's ended up falling forward as expected. However, because his face was so close to her, their lips pressed against one another in a accidental kiss.  
Their eyes widened in surprise as they suddenly realized that their lips were pressing against one another. They were kissing!  
Shinji blushed a horrible shade of red as he quickly pulled away not even a split second later. He quickly got up to his feet, holding his hands up defensively, expecting to be slapped really hard, "I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It was a complete accident!" Emiko's eyes was wide with shock. She couldn't believe what had just happened. She and Shinji had just kissed. This was the first time she had ever been kissed. Sure, she had kissed Ranma once, but that was because of some stupid ninja law she had to obey. Sure, Shinji had kissed her once before at the spring, but it had been purely accidental and her body had been possessed by the vengeful spirit doll. This time around, it was completely different. She sat upright as Shinji back away. She touched her lips, wondering what this warm sensation she was feeling around them. Was that usually the result one got after being kissed?  
She regarded him in a state of speechlessness, not knowing what to do or say.  
Shinji stood there for several moment, wondering what he should say. He was still blushing and not really knowing what to do. Although it was purely accidentally, he knew that they had kissed. What was strange was the sensations it evoked within him that thoroughly disturbed him. He had accidentally kissed Emiko before, but it felt nothing like this. Perhaps it was because she had been possessed at the time. What was really strange was that the kiss evoked a sense of emotions within her much like when he and Sumi had kissed. What was the significance in that?  
"Um, are you okay?" he asked, composing himself. He noticed Emiko seemed to be still in a state of shock. He waved a hand at her. Did he accidentally headbutt her? It didn't feel like it.  
"Um, I-I'm fine," she said after a moment.  
"I'm sorry. It was a complete accident," he said.  
"I-it's okay," she said, "Um, I was just a bit shocked. That's all,"  
Shinji walked back over to where Emiko was and extended his hand for her to take. To his surprise, she did, taking his hand in herself and getting up. She dusted her dogi for a moment before looking up at him.  
"Um, let's call it quits," Shinji said, "Let's just call the sparring session a draw,"  
Emiko smiled slightly, "I guess so. I can settle for that,"  
Together, the two headed out of the dojo.

"Something bothering you?" Ranma asked, "You look distracted,"  
Shinji and Ranma were in the dojo and it was somewhere around nine in the evening. He noticed Shinji's way fighting seemed to have been a bit off today than from the other day. "Um, kinda," Shinji said after a moment. Would it be wrong for Shinji mention to Ranma about what had happened between him and Emiko in that same dojo a few hours earlier, even if it was purely accidental? It was really weird what happened back then and he had no idea what to make of it.  
"What is it?" Ranma asked.  
Shinji paused for a moment before he replied, "It's nothing,"  
He didn't know why that kiss evoked the same feelings as when he had kissed Sumi but he figured needing to tell Ranma was unnecessary. He needed to figure it out himself.

Shinji glanced at Emiko as she slept soundly. Although shocked initially, Emiko didn't seem to dwell on what had happened like he had. In a sense, she went about her business as if that incident had never happened.  
In a sense, it made him glad and sad at the same time. He was glad that she didn't make a big deal about it, but it made him sad that she seemed to have dismissed the incident so easily.  
We almost kissed back then, Shinji thought. We almost kissed after I fell off the roof and she fell down with me. What could that have meant?  
Perhaps something was wrong with him. It was just a kiss, afterall. Ranma constantly got kissed and he didn't seem to dwell on it that much. But then again, he wasn't Ranma and couldn't react to everything much like the way Ranma did.  
Damn, what the hell is wrong with me, he thought. I like Sumi. Emiko's my friend. So why the heck is a kiss from a friend affecting me much like when I kissed Sumi?  
It was best that he sleep on it.  
Shinji closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Shinji called Sumi on Sunday morning.  
"You was just calling to see how you were doing," he said.  
"I'm doing fine, Shinji. I'm happy you called," Sumi's happiness could be heard over the phone, "How've you been? What have you been doing these past couple of days?"  
"Nothing much. Y'know, just training and such," came the truthful reply. He did nothing different this weekend than his usual weekend. The only thing that was perhaps a bit different was when he and Emiko went to the movies together and that accidental kiss. Other than that, nothing had changed, "How about you? How's your visit home?"  
"Tiring," Sumi said with a sigh, "I worked all day Saturday and was dead tired when I got back home,"  
"How's Sen and Alison doing?" he figured he'd ask.  
"They're fine," she answered, "I hung out with them on Friday night. The three of us went to the movies together. We saw 'Hearts of Blossoms'. Sen hated it but Alison and I like it,"  
Shinji smirked. 'Hearts of Blossoms' was a chick flick and Sen was a guy so it was natural that he wouldn't like a chick flick.  
"So, when are you coming back tonight?" he asked.  
"At six," she answered, "I'll be coming in by bus,"  
"Six, huh? Okay, I'll meet you at the bus stop," he said.  
Sumi said, "That's so sweet, but you don't need to do that. I'm only five minutes away from my dorm by cab. I'll take a cab. I don't want to trouble you,"  
"Oh no, it's fine," he answered, "I don't mind at all,"  
"Okay," she felt very happy.

Shinji entered the bookstore sometime after noon that day. Since he and Emiko had today off from training, he would use his free time to check out if there were new boxing magazines out. Afterwards, he would go over to Priss' place to jam with her since she was still relatively free nowadays.  
"Man, I should get a subscription," he said to himself as he scanned through the magazine rack for any new boxing magazines. There were none.  
He looked toward the front of the store where he caught sight of a familiar looking person as she entered. His gaze followed her as she walked up to where he was, a couple of racks over, and began scanning through the magazines.  
He didn't even need to see her face as she knew it was the beautiful model, Melinda. "Yo," he called out to her.  
Melinda turned toward Shinji and lowered her shades to reveal those gorgeous blue eyes of hers, "Hey, Shinji,"  
"Are you following me? You seem to be in here whenever I'm here," he smirked. He didn't know why he said it but it seemed like something Ranma would say. Also, he felt much more comfortable being around Melinda so he figured he could crack a joke without being too self-conscious of what he was saying. Melinda cracked a smile, "Are you hitting on me?"  
Shinji blushed a deep shade of red, holding his hands up defensively, "N-no! I-I was just joking around. I-I didn't think you would take it like that,"  
Melinda laughed.  
After a moment, Shinji realized she had been joking, all at his expense.  
He cleared his throat, "I guess you've got me and I deserved it,"  
"Do you come here often?" she asked, wondering how many times she had seen him at the bookstore so far. They must've bumped in to each other several times by now. After a moment, she realized something. Did she just use a come-on line with Shinji? Even though it was really a curious question, that sure sounded like a come-on line.  
Shinji shook his head, "I don't come here all that much. I usually come here every Sunday,"  
"Ah," she smiled, "That's usually when I come by so I guess that's why we always seem to bump in to one another. So, how goes with the cello?"  
Shinji smiled, "It's going great. I practice every night. I was rusty when I first started but I've already caught up to the level where I was when I stopped,"  
"Sounds interesting," she said, "I wouldn't mind hearing it one day,"  
"Sure," he said, "I don't see a problem in playing for you one day. Heck, it'd be the least I can do as a way of saying thanks for letting me borrow it,"  
"It's no problem," she said, "I'm glad that cello's being put to good use,"  
"Yeah," he nodded, "It definitely is. Actually, I'm gonna go over to Priss' place after this and jam with her,"  
"Priss?" she asked curiously.  
"Yeah, you might know her, Priss Asagiri," he answered, "From Priss and the Replicants. She's a famous rockstar,"  
"I think I know who she is," Melinda said sarcastically. After a moment, something dwelled on her, "Waitaminute, you know Priss?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, why?"  
"You're kidding me, right?" she asked skeptically. Guys usually spun lies when talking to her but she found it odd that Shinji would spin a lie all of a sudden. Unlike most guys, he already knew her and there was no need to try and impress her.  
"No," he answered truthfully, "Why would I kid around? She plays the guitar while I play the cello. What, you know her?"  
"Of course I know her," she answered, "I think everyone knows her. I really like her music. I've never met her before though,"  
"She's a cool person," Shinji said, "She's also really nice," "Priss, nice?" Melinda perked an eyebrow.  
"Yeah, I know. Everyone thinks she's actually very scary," he waved a dismissive hand, "But that's just her public persona. She's really nice. She helps me out a lot,"  
"How do you know her?" she asked curiously.  
"We're friends," Shinji answered.  
"How'd you meet her I mean?" Shinji scratched his head, "Hm, now that I think about it, I don't really know. Oh yeah, I just met her shortly after I came here,"  
"Oh," she said.  
Shinji said, "Well, I guess it's best that I get going now. Priss is expecting me,"  
"Um, okay," was all she could say.  
Shinji left the bookstore. As he headed home to get the borrowed cello, he smiled to himself.  
"Wow, it really isn't that hard to talk to girls anymore. I wonder what prevented me from talking to them normally back then,"

Priss smiled as she opened the door and saw Shinji. They greeted each other as Priss let Shinji in. They entered the livingroom where the speakers were already set up for their jam session.  
"Do you bring out those speakers for every time I come over?" he asked, "I come over a few times a week and it must get tiresome,"  
She shook her head, "No. I just leave 'em out where they are. Since you come over so often, there's no need for me to put them away,"  
"I guess you have a point," he nodded.  
"So, how goes Ranma's station wagon?" Priss asked curiously, "He came over and picked the engine up yesterday,"  
"Really?" Shinji's eyes widened, "Already? God, he works fast. He only got it a few days ago. How'd he pick it up and bring it home?"  
"I guess he's been real bored that he wants anything to keep himself distracted. How do you think he picked it up and brought it home? He literally picked it up and brought it home," Priss shrugged. She felt a bit sad. She wouldn't mind working on the car with him since she was knowledgeable with cars. However, Ranma didn't seem to want her help, wanting to do everything on his own.  
"He's been doing really weird stuff lately to pass his time," he commented.  
"That's Ranma for ya," Priss said, "What's weird is that this is the first time I've ever seen Ranma not doing some kinda adventure. He's usually out adventuring and the adventure is occupying his time. Since he's not doing that now, he seems really bored,"  
"So why won't Ranma go out on an adventure then?" Shinji asked.  
"Why dontcha asking him?" she answered, "He has a nanban mirror and can use it any time he wants. Heck, Ryoga's been gone for so long. If he goes out to look for him, that sounds like an adventure right there waiting to happen. Who the heck knows where Ryoga is,"  
Shinji scratched his head, "I guess so,"  
"Back to the first question, how far along is he with the station wagon?" she asked.  
Shinji answered, "Oh, he's coming along fine I guess. Now that I know he's already has the engine in his possession, it kinda makes sense why I saw him carrying a welding book and a blowtorch,"  
"A welding book and a blowtorch?" Priss asked, "Why the heck would he need that?"  
"To fit work at getting the engine in to the car, right?" Shinji said, "That's what he said, that it requires some welding to get the car engine properly fitted,"  
Priss shook her head, "No, that shouldn't be the case. There are kits that would do it. It doesn't need any welding or such,"  
"Hm, perhaps Ranma wants to challenge himself and do it the hard way," Shinji commented.  
"That sounds like what Ranma would do," Priss said, "I guess if he used a kit, the engine would be in that station wagon in a around five days or so. If he tries to do it himself, then it would probably keep him occupied for about a two weeks,"  
"Ranma's never done that before. Dontcha think it would take him longer?" he asked.  
"No," Priss smirked, "This included the fact that Ranma doesn't know what he's doing. He picks stuff up really quickly and I'm sure he'd have that engine in the car in around a week if not shorter,"  
"I guess so," he said.  
"Anyway, enough about the car, let's jam," she said, looking forward to jamming with Shinji.  
Shinji looked around the house at around four in the afternoon. He had spent around four hours jamming at Priss' penthouse and was now home. He still had two hours left before he needed to get over to the bus station to meet up with Sumi as her bus came in to the terminal. Since Priss was genuinely interested on the progress of the station wagon, he figured he would take it upon himself to find out first-hand how far along Ranma was and tell her the next time he saw her.  
"Have you seen Ranma?" Shinji asked Akane she was in the kitchen. Akane jerked a thumb toward the window behind her, "Yeah, he's out in the garage,"  
"G-garage? This house has a garage?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
"Yeah, of course. where have you been?" Akane smirked.  
"Obviously not around this house long enough," he said, "I never knew this house has a garage,"  
"You've lived here for a few years and you didn't even know that? That's rather funny," Akane laughed, "Anyway, it's next to the dojo,"  
"Thanks," Shinji walked off.  
Shinji walked behind the dojo where he was surprised to see that there was indeed a garage. It made sense when he noticed the massive door that was big enough for a car to pass through. "Jeez, I never knew we had a garage," Shinji commented, "I mean what's the point. We've never had a car until now. I thought that addition to the dojo was a shed. Oh well,"  
Shinji noticed the garage door was closed. Since there were no windows, he couldn't look in. Walking up to the garage, he opened it up. Looking in, he was shocked at what he saw. It really was a garage. The station wagon was inside as well. There were power tools that lined the left side of the wall. He saw Ranma sitting off on the right side, his face covered by a faceplate, his back to him. Also by where Ranma was was a large pile of what looked like scrap metal. The garage was dark but he could see Ranma's shadow dancing against the interior walls as he seemed to be using the blowtorch he had recently bought. "Ranma," Shinji called out to him.  
Ranma stopped what he was doing and lifted up the faceplate and turned toward Shinji, "Yo,"  
Shinji looked around, "Man, I can't believe this is a garage. All this time, I thought it was a shed,"  
Ranma smirked, "Gee, you're kinda stupid, aren't ya?"  
Shinji found himself unable to say anything in reply.  
Ranma laughed, "I'm just teasing ya. Come on in and close the garage door behind ya,"  
Shinji did as he was talked, closing the garage door behind him. When it was closed the interior looked very dimly light. There was a lone light bulb off in the corner by where Ranma was that didn't seem to produce enough light for the entire garage.  
He glanced toward the station wagon where its hood was open. Looking in, he noticed that the McLaren F1 engine was already in t It , "Holy smoke, you already put the engine in?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, it was easy,"  
"Priss said it would take you about a two week to learn how to weld and get the engine fitted correctly," Shinji commented.  
"Priss guessed wrong," Ranma grinned, "It took me almost two days to do it though,"  
"What didja do?" Shinji asked, "I don't know all that much about cars, but trying to fit a rear-engine of McLaren F1 in to the front of a station wagon must be some kinda insanely hard task, especially when you've never done something like this before,"  
"It wasn't that hard," Ranma said, "I got a kit and it helped me out greatly,"  
"I thought you were gonna do welding," Shinji said.  
"I did," Ranma nodded, "But it had nothing to do with getting the engine in. I did it for installing this exhaust system thingie I picked up at the same time I got the car,"  
"You installed an exhaust system?"  
"Yeah," he said, "It wasn't that hard. The exhaust system for the car was bad when I got it. I simply replaced it. That's all,"  
"Oh," Shinji said, "Man, are you sure you've never worked with cars before?"  
"I'm sure," Ranma nodded, "I don't think I've ever driven one before, let alone worked on one before. All this stuff is new to me,"  
"Wow," Shinji was extremely impressed. Ranma seemed to be mechanically gifted. Ranma was so full of surprises.  
"The car already works," Ranma said, "However, since I don't need it for anything, I plan on leaving it in this garage for when I need it,"  
"The car is already roadworthy?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
"Yep,"  
"Wow, that's incredible," Shinji said. He walked up to where Ranma was and looked over his shoulder, "If you're done with working on the car, then whatcha doing now? I saw you doing some welding stuff when I opened the garage door,"  
"Oh, that," Ranma said, "It was something totally different from working on the car,"  
"What is it?" he asked, glancing toward the right and noticing the pile of scrap metal, "Hey, where did all this scrap metal come from?"  
Ranma said, "That scrap metal came from GeoFront,"  
"Huh?"  
"Remember when I went down to GeoFront?" Ranma asked.  
"Yeah," Shinji nodded.  
"I went down there and picked up some scrap metal," he answered, "The metal you see are some of the remains of that 'NeoNerv Headquarters' that we built a few years ago,"  
"I thought you simply went down there because you were bored," Shinji commented.  
"I was bored," Ranma nodded, "However, while I was down there, I picked some stuff up to bring back up here,"  
Shinji continued to glance over at the pile of scrap metal and noticed something familiar, "Hey, isn't that the bike you were riding that day?"  
"Yeah," Ranma nodded, "I picked it up a while back and brought it back here. It's good for scrap metal,"  
"Speaking of which, why the heck would you grab scrap metal from down in that GeoFront?" Shinji asked, scratching his head. Ranma grinned, "That brings us back to your first question, to make something,"  
"Make what?" Shinji asked.  
"Nothing in particular," he answered.  
"But why?" Shinji asked.  
"Because I'm bored,"

Shinji entered the kitchen at around five where he saw Akane and Luna chopping some vegetables, getting ready to start making dinner.  
"Hey, Shinji," Luna and Akane greeted him.  
"Hey," he said in return.  
"Didja find Ranma? Was he in the garage?" Akane asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"  
"What's the matter? You looked kinda weirded out," Luna asked, "It looks like something's bothering you,"  
"Well, yeah," he said, "It's Ranma and what he's been doing recently,"  
Akane waved a dismissive hand, "Ranma's been doing many odd things lately. That guy needs to go on an adventure or something,"  
"I agree," Luna said, "Ranma doesn't seem like the type of person that can stay in one place for long. He seems like he needs to be constantly doing something or he'll go nuts from boredom,"  
"That definitely seems like the case," Shinji shrugged, "However, what makes me wonder is why he does this stuff? If he's so bored, why won't he go out? Priss brought up a good point when I saw here earlier today. Ranma should go out looking for Ryoga. It sounds like an adventure waiting to happen,"  
Akane laughed, "Perhaps. However, considering he and Ryoga don't care all that much for each other, I think going out looking for Ryoga is the last thing on Ranma's mind,"  
"Why won't he go visit another world then?" Shinji asked.  
"And do what?" Akane smirked, "Screw up that world's timeline as well? In case you're wondering, Ranma seems to have this weird propensity of screwing up entire worlds' timelines,"  
"I guess you've got a point," Shinji said, "Perhaps Ranma just chilling around and just doing weird things to occupy his time is much better than him going out and causing havoc on timelines,"  
"Definitely," both females agreed.

Emiko paced back and forth in her room. Actually, it was Shinji's room, but it was considered her room as well.  
It was somewhere around five-thirty in the evening.  
She had done really well in hiding how much that accidentally kiss had affected her. She remembered watching in that anime movie how the friend pretended nothing happened which led to the girl to start liking him. In a sense, it was a form of reverse-psychology which seemed to have worked in the movies. Perhaps it was possible in real life.  
She had looked in the relationship book about anything about an accidental kiss and how to go about afterward but the book contained no information about it. Since she had no relationship book to go by, she figured going on an anime movie was worth a shot.  
I'm so bad, Emiko though. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do that I'm doing what's being done in an anime movie. Am I crazy or something to think something like that might work?  
Figuring it was useless to hole herself up in her room, Emiko figured she can perhaps go downstairs and do some katas in the dojo, to help keep her mind occupied.  
She saw Shinji putting on his shoes by the entrance walkway as she came down the stairs.  
"Where are you going?" she asked.  
"To meet Sumi at the bus stop," Shinji answered without looking up, "Her bus gets in at six and I'm gonna meet her at the stop,"  
Emiko suddenly found herself confused at how she should react. The friend in the movie would have acted like it didn't effect him after hearing such news, but Emiko felt as if something inside her was tearing apart. How the hell could the friend in the movie not be upset after hearing something like that? I know why, she thought. Because it's a goddamn anime and it isn't real life!  
"Fine. See ya," she said, walking off. She felt very embarrassed. She didn't want Shinji to see the pain she was feeling. She was not in physical pain. Emotional pain was a whole other story. This emotional one felt much much worse.  
Shinji looked up and just as he caught sight of her disappearing around the corner of the hallway.  
"I told you, it was an accident," Shinji said, realizing that it seemed Emiko was still upset at him for having accidentally kissed her. All this time, he thought she was perfectly fine with what had happened and had put it behind her. It seems like he was completely wrong.  
"Damnit!"

Shinji looked very distracted when Sumi's bus pulled up to the terminal. He was pacing back and forth and didn't even seem to notice her arrival until after she called his name a second time as she approached him.  
"Hey, Sumi," he said, a bit embarrassed that he didn't notice her at first.  
"Something the matter?" she asked.  
He thought about it for a moment before he finally waved a dismissive hand, "Not really, I think,"  
"Could it be because of your upcoming debut match?" she asked. She knew about it because they had mentioned it when he called her earlier today. They had talked for a good deal of time before Sumi had to go, someone needing to use the phone.  
Shinji shrugged.  
He didn't want to lie to her. He liked her so what kind of guy was he if he lied to the girl he liked? There were some things that he couldn't bring herself to tell her the truth about, but he wanted to not lie at all if that was possible.  
"I'm glad I'm back," Sumi said, blushing slightly, "Um, I missed you,"  
Shinji was a bit shocked at the comment. Did she really mean it? She missed him? Really?  
"Um, I missed you, too," he said, feeling a bit awkward.  
His heart skipped a beat as he suddenly saw her closer her eyes and lean forward as if expecting a kiss. Luckily for him, he didn't stand there like an idiot and embarrass himself and Sumi because of his lack of action. He quickly banished the overwhelming sense of nervousness that suddenly enveloped him and leaned forward, kissing Sumi on the lips.  
The kiss was brief but gentle. When they parted, Shinji found himself wanting to kiss her again. However, if he tried, would that be considered greedy? What if she does nothing? Then he'd be extremely embarrassed.  
Shinji noticed the backpack that was by Sumi's feet.  
"What's that for?" he asked.  
"They're my books, silly," she smiled warmly, "I can't visit home for the whole weekend and not study. I need to study much like everyone else. Besides, we've got a test this Tuesday. Have you been studying?"  
"Yeah," he said, giving a sheepish smile, "Here, lettme get that for you,"  
Without saying another word, he picked the backpack up and threw it over his shoulder.  
"Thanks," she smiled.  
"Um, let's get going,"

Shinji got back home sometime around seven-thirty, just in time for dinner. However, shortly after he arrived, he noticed that Emiko wasn't around for dinner like everyone else.  
"Where were you?" Akane asked.  
"I was at the bus stop," he answered, "I was there meeting up with Sumi,"  
"Ah," she said.  
"Where's Emiko?" Shinji asked to no one in particular.  
"Yeah, she's sleeping," Ranma said, his voice a bit cold. However, no one but Luna and Akane seemed to notice.  
"Sleeping?" Shinji was surprised, "What for? It's only seven-thirty,"  
Akane and Luna and Ranma looked at one another.  
Ranma felt a bit angry at Shinji for making Emiko cry herself to sleep but he had to keep himself objective to the situation at hand. He had caught sight of Emiko running up the stairs, nearly at the brink of tears. It didn't take a genius to know what happened. Emiko had secretly followed Shinji to the bus stop. Shinji probably did something with Sumi like kiss her which tore away at Emiko.  
Ranma couldn't help but feel angry and sad at the same time toward Emiko. He felt sad that she was so sad but he also felt angry that she wasn't taking any action. If she liked Shinji, then what was taking her so long to tell him?  
"Um, perhaps she's tired," Ranma said after a moment, "That's why she's sleeping,"  
"Oh," Shinji said.

Shinji entered his room at around eight-thirty, immediately after dinner.  
Inside, he saw Emiko lying on her bed, her back toward him, seemingly sound asleep. Seeing her made him wonder why she was sleeping now. If anything, she should be wide awake since neither of them worked out today so they weren't as physically tired as most days.  
In his hands was a small bowl of food and chopsticks. Since she had slept through dinner, he figured that she would be hungry around now if she woke up.  
"Emiko, you awake?" he asked in a soft voice. He reached out a hand as if to give her a gentle nudge but stopped before he touched her. Perhaps it was best that he leave her to sleep.  
He regarded her for a moment. He noticed the slow and stead rise and fall of her chest which indicated that she was fast asleep. He noticed that one of her legs had slipped out from under the blankets.  
He gently covered her exposed legs with the blanket. As he did so, she turned over on to her other side so that she was facing. As she did so, a bang of hair fell down and over her face.  
Shinji reached out and pushed the bang off her face. What the hell am I doing, Shinji thought to himself. She's not my girlfriend or anything so why am I doing something like that?  
He sighed. What the heck was wrong with him?  
He placed the bowl off food and chopsticks by the night table right by her bed. If she woke up, she would see it right away. She would most likely eat it if she were hungry. Besides, if she were angry with him, she wouldn't know that he had put the food there in the first place and simply not eat it out of spite. She would most likely assume that Ranma had put the food there since he did kind gestures like that all the time.  
"G'night," he said as he left the room.  
As he walked down the stairs, he saw Ranma as he was coming up. In his hands was a bowl of food and chopsticks.  
"I already put some food on the nightstand for Emiko," Shinji said.  
"Eh? What makes you think this is for her?" Ranma smirked, "I was just heading up to the balcony to eat outside. It's nice out tonight,"  
"Oh, nevermind," Shinji said, heading off.  
Ranma smirked after Shinji disappeared around the hallway corner.  
He then promptly threw away the bowl of food that was originally intended for Emiko.  
Shinji had beaten him to the punch.  
Shinji was surprised too see Emiko when he showed up at Makunouchi Gym that Monday afternoon. He was expecting her to still be angry at him and not show up.  
"Wow, you're here," he said.  
"Of course," she said, "Why wouldn't I?"  
Shinji regarded her for a moment. She seemed like she wasn't angry at him anymore. However, she was a female and females were incredibly hard to understand. It seemed only females understood females.  
"You're not angry at me anymore?" he dared to ask, wondering if he was reopening an old wound.  
She paused for a moment. Was it right for her to be angry with him? Shinji had made it clear that he liked Sumi. Besides, if she hadn't followed him, she wouldn't have seen them kiss at the bus stop and she wouldn't had become so upset. Perhaps she brought it upon herself.  
"No, I'm not angry," she said, smiling slightly.  
Shinji breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness. It was an accident, afterall,"  
"An accident?" she asked. It sure didn't look like an accident. He and Sumi seemed to have kissed each other mutually.  
"Yeah, back at the dojo," he said.  
"Oh, the dojo," she came to the realization that they seemed to talking about two completely different things.  
"Yeah," he nodded, "What did you think I was talking about?"  
"Nevermind," she gave a meek smile.  
Shinji gave her an odd look, "Um, okay,"  
Females were definitely hard to understand.

Nene knocked on the apartment door to Ritsuko's apartment that Monday evening. Ritsuko was surprised when she opened the door and found Nene standing there in the hallway.  
"Nene, please, come in," Ritsuko gestured.  
"Thanks," Nene entered, following Ritsuko in to the livingroom.  
"Are you looking for Misato or Lisa?" Ritsuko asked.  
Since she and Misato and Lisa lived together, Ritsuko figured Nene was there most likely to talk to one of them. Not many people visit her. It was rather sad but true. "Actually, I came to talk to you," Nene answered, "Are you busy?"  
Ritsuko shook her head, "Not too busy. Just running some tests on the new chip Lisa and I've been working on,"  
Nene smirked, "You mean that boomer you two've been working on for the past year or so?"  
"Yes," Ritsuko nodded, "It's just a hobby. Ranma still thinks it's going to become so self-aware that it'll try and take over the world or something like that,"  
"How's that possible?" Nene was curious, "I remember you mentioning about how that boomer's artificial intelligence is like a new-born child and is unused to its body or something like that,"  
"That was a long time ago," Ritsuko answered, "Our project was at that stage around the time when Ranma came back home after spending some time on Lina's and Luna's and Emiko's world,"  
"Ah," Nene agreed, "You're right. How goes that project anyway?"  
"It's coming along fine," Ritsuko said proudly, "Lisa and I work on it on and off. However, we've decided to shut it off and simply wait for this world's technology to advance far enough so we can implement some of the idea want used,"  
"Wow," Nene was impressed.  
"Anyway, that's kind of besides the point," Ritsuko waved a dismissive hand, "What is it you wanted to talk to me about?"  
Nene sat down, "Well, it's something that's been bothering me and I figure, of all people, maybe you might be able to make sense of it. It might mean nothing, but it could also mean something,"  
Ritsuko sat down, very interested in what Nene had to say, "Please, go on,"  
"The other day, Ranma visited me at work," Nene began.  
"He did?" Ritsuko felt jealous, "He hasn't visited me at work in over a week,"  
Nene gave a meek smile, "Um, that's besides the point,"  
"Go on," Ritsuko cleared her throat.  
"Ranma asked me to do him a favor," Nene continued.  
"Another favor that asked you to hack in to some kind of central database or such?" Ritsuko smirked.  
Nene nodded, "Yes. In a sense, it's much like the time when he asked me to hack in to my work's own computer mainframe to remove that warrant for his arrest. Shortly after that, he asked the same on Shinji's behalf,"  
"What's wrong with that?" Ritsuko asked. Actually, if she thought about it, there was plenty of things wrong with that, the main thing it being illegal in every way. Perhaps Ranma's generally lack in ethics was rubbing off on her.  
Nene said, "Well, there's nothing really all that wrong since I've done this before. However, with the request he asked of me, he never gave me a reason, especially for such a strange request,"  
"What request was it?" Ritsuko asked.  
"He asked me to hack in to centralized medical in the United States and erase Shinji's records," Nene said.  
"That's a rather strange request," Ritsuko said.  
Nene nodded emphatically, "That's the exact same thing I was thinking. However, I did so. What's weird is that why would he want me doing that? Shinji's not even from this world so there is no record of him. It's really weird because shortly after Ranma brought back the children, he asked me to hack in to the same computer back then and put in fake medical and background records for you and Misato and the children. What's strange is that it's only been a few years since I did that and now Ranma comes to me asking me to erase Shinji's,"  
"I remember that. I was there helping out with making up the record. Hm, that's very strange," Ritsuko said, "Very very strange,"  
"But then again, this is Ranma we're talking about," Nene shrugged, "Ranma does a lot of strange things. However, what may seem strange from anyone's point of view, actually makes complete sense from his point of view,"  
"I know exactly what you mean," Ritsuko nodded, "For instance, what he's doing with the children and Misato and I are driving us rather nuts but we've basically given up trying to find out the answer,"  
"What are you talking about?" Nene asked.  
Ritsuko said, "Don't you remember? It was a while ago, shortly after he came back to this world,"  
"Um, there's a lot of things Ranma does that drive everyone rather nuts," Nene smirked, "I think you're gonna need to be a bit more elaborate,"  
Ritsuko said, "It was a long time ago, during Friday dinner. He mentioned about how he actually knows what would've happened to us on our world if he never showed up,"  
"Oh yeah. That." Nene said, "You're right. It's strange how he knows. He also mentioned about how he knows about what our future would've been had he not been around, too. Do you think he's joking around?"  
Ritsuko shrugged, "I really don't think so. He does joke around a lot, but not with something like that. What really disturbs me is that he says it's not something he cared to remember. However, no one would ever know since he is around,"  
"Do you think it's really true?" Nene asked, "Do you think him becoming God made him all-knowing?"  
"I really don't know," Ritsuko shrugged, "However, I really don't think we will ever know. If Ranma doesn't want to tell us, then there's no way we're ever gonna be able to convince him otherwise. This is Ranma we're talking about,"  
Nene sighed, "You've got a point,"  
"Unfortunately," Ritsuko sighed.  
"Well, I guess since we're never really going to know, what with Ranma being around and all, it's best to forget about it," Nene suggested.  
"Right,"  
"Anyway, back on to the subject of Shinji, what do you make of it?" Nene asked, "Do you think there's some kind of significance to why Ranma asked me to erase his doctored medical that? Heh, get it? Doctored medical records,"  
Ritsuko face-faulted, "I can't believe you can actually joke around now,"  
"Sorry," Nene blushed.  
"Anyway," Ritsuko scratched her chin, deep in thought for a moment, "There's probably a huge significance to it. The fact that Ranma didn't tell you must mean something very important,"  
"What do you think it could be?" Nene asked, wondering if Ritsuko could once again impress her with her power of deduction.  
"Hm, what could Ranma be up to?" Ritsuko asked herself, "Ranma's taken care of Shinji on several occasion so it's best to assume that he's doing this as a way of helping Shinji. As to what, I'm drawing a blank,"  
"The thing is is that Shinji's medical records were, much like yours and Misato's and the children's, all made up," Nene commented, "So what's the use of erasing something that's made up?"  
Ritsuko said, "Hold up. You've got a point. Perhaps he wanted it erased because there's something that was made up in Shinji's medical record that might lead to him getting in trouble or noticed,"  
Nene shook her head, "That's not possible. Heck, even you know that. You were there helping me make something up,"  
"That's very true," Ritsuko said.  
She thought for several long moments, still trying to figure something out.  
"Perhaps it's just nothing," Nene suggest.  
Ritsuko's eyes widened, "I know!"  
"What?" Nene was startled.  
"At Friday dinner, remember how Shinji mentioned how he gave blood not too long ago?" Ritsuko asked.  
Nene nodded, "Yeah. I remember. He only mentioned it shortly before the subject changed, but I remember him seemingly proud of himself at having voluntarily given blood. What's the deal with that?"  
Ritsuko gave a meek smile, "Um, that's something I'm a bit ashamed to talk about. When the children were piloting the EVAs, blood tests were usually conducted on them. However, I remember Shinji used to resist and it ended up with Nerv actually having to forcibly remove his blood for testing,"  
"Man, I never knew that," Nene said, "Is Shinji scared of needles or something?"  
Ritsuko shook her head, "Not that I'm aware of. I think it was just him rebelling against Nerv which always resulted in that,"  
"So, you think it has something to do with his blood?" Nene asked.  
Ritsuko shrugged, "Perhaps. But then again, I could be completely wrong,"  
"I dunno," Nene said, "Your deductions seems to be constantly on point,"  
"Um, thanks," Ritsuko smiled slightly, a bit embarrassed. She really was amazing at deductions, wasn't she?  
"So what does this have to do with Shinji giving blood?" Nene asked.  
"I think there's a possibility something was determined in his blood," Ritsuko said, "If that's the case, it would've been recorded in his so-called medical profile. If his medical record was erased, then whatever was determined in his blood would also be erased,"  
"What could it be about his blood?" Nene asked.  
"I really don't know," Ritsuko said.  
"Is there something that happened to Shinji on your world that you're not telling us?" Nene asked.  
Ritsuko shook her head, "No. That world is behind us and we are no longer attached to it in any way. I'm not withholding any information that's relevant to this,"  
"Could Shinji be some kinda Angel?" Nene asked, trying something, anything.  
Ritsuko gave Nene an odd look. After a moment, she burst out laughing.  
"Shinji? An Angel?" Ritsuko laughed, "That's ridiculous. What, you think he's an Angel like Ranma? That's definitely not the case,"  
"I guess you have a point," Nene shrugged.  
"Ranma told us his story," Ritsuko said, "He told us that he was born from Unit-01 on that alternate 'Second Impact'-prevented world. From what he told me, one can easily surmise that him emerging from Unit-01 on that world is what gave him the properties of that of an Angel. Nothing like that has ever happened to Shinji,"  
"Oh," Nene said, "Well, it was worth a shot,"  
Ritsuko thought about it for a moment, "However, Shinji being an Angel is something I'm sure anyone would surmise if a subject like the properties of Shinji's blood is brought up. Unfortunately, there's a bit of hole in that assumption,"  
"And that being..." Nene said.  
"The fact that Shinji never born from the Unit-01 of our world," Ritsuko smirked.  
"Oh," Nene said.  
"Countless blood tests were conducted on the children on our world and there was nothing funny about any of their blood," Ritsuko said, "If something like that were to happen, then I guess that's a definite possibility. However, that's not the case,"  
"So I guess we're back at square one," Nene sighed.  
Ritsuko suggested, "There could be something more mundane than that assumption,"  
"What is that?" Nene asked.  
"Shinji might have some kind of incurable cancer and it was determined in his blood," Ritsuko said.  
"That doesn't explain why Ranma would ask that his medical record be erased," Nene said. Ritsuko sighed, "I know. I know,"  
Nene snapped her fingers, "Oh, I know!"  
"What?" Ritsuko asked.  
"It was probably determined that he did have some kind of disease," Nene said, "However, in this world, since Shinji's constantly getting healed by Luna, Luna probably healed him without him knowing it. Ranma asking that his medical record be erased is probably so the record of him actually having had something like that never makes it back to him," "Yes, you've definitely got a point," Ritsuko agreed, "Although Shinji's getting very strong and is a highly skilled fighter, he's still Shinji. For him to find something out like him having had something like an incurable disease might be devastating to him,"  
Nene nodded, "Yes. Over the past several months, Shinji's really grown. For something like that to happen to him would devastate him. Because of Shinji's personality, it would probably make him extremely depressed and give up, even if something like that is behind him,"  
Ritsuko smirked, "That's right. You're getting good at this. Ranma's training of Shinji is kinda like a hobby. I think Ranma simply did this because he didn't want it interrupting his training,"  
Nene said, "I think you're right,"  
Ritsuko sighed, "That's got to be it," "I agree," Nene nodded, "Shinji's coming along so well that knowledge of something like this would probably set him back quite a lot of time in his training,"  
"Speaking of which, how good do you think Shinji's becoming?" Ritsuko asked, "I spoke to Luna the other day and she mentioned that Ranma had told her that Shinji's actually at around his level when he first met you,"  
Nene's eyes widened, "Really? You're kidding me,"  
"No," came the reply, "Go ask her. She'll tell you,"  
"I will," Nene said.  
"Why are you so surprised?" Ritsuko asked, "Is that really strange?"  
"When we first fought against Ranma, Ranma was extremely powerful," Nene said, "Sure, he's nowhere near as powerful as he is now, but he was still very powerful. How's it possible for Shinji to be at Ranma's level back then?"  
"I don't know," Ritsuko shrugged, "That's what Luna told me. Just talk to her. Perhaps you can make out more from that comment since you actually fought against him a long time ago,"  
"I definitely will ask her," Nene said, "There's no way Shinji can be as powerful as Ranma was when we first fought. That's beyond comprehension,"  
"What's so far-fetched about it?" Ritsuko asked, wondering just how powerful Ranma was back then.  
Nene answered, "Because, Ranma was around, what, fifty, when we first fought him. He's been training in martial arts all his life for him to become that powerful. Shinji's only been training for a few years!"  
"True, but Ranma trained alone. I remember him telling me that," Ritsuko said, "Shinji's being taught by Ranma. It seems like being self-taught is nowhere near as effective as being taught by someone as skilled as Ranma,"  
"What took Ranma, what, around fifty years to become, Shinji reached in only around five years," Nene said, "Also, keep in mind that Ranma wasn't the one teaching Shinji all this time. Akane's been teaching him most of the time,"  
"You think Shinji's more gifted in martial arts than Ranma?" Ritsuko asked, "I'd like to disagree. I think Ranma's probably the brightest person when it comes to martial arts. Shinji's bright as well, but not as bright as Ranma,"  
"That really don't make sense," Nene said, "For Shinji to become this powerful in such a short time..."  
Ritsuko sighed, "Heh, it seems like we've figured out one problem, that being the erasing of Shinji's records, only to find ourselves with another one,"  
"We should ask the others,"  
All the adult females were gathered around in Sylia's penthouse later that evening. It was surprising how everyone seemed to be free that night and didn't have much to do.  
"What seems to be the problem?" Akane asked Ritsuko curiously, "How come you asked all of us to meet here? What's this have to do with Shinji?"  
"There's been a few things going on recently that's got Nene and I a bit suspicious," Ritsuko said.  
"Like what?" Akane asked first.  
Nene went about telling the group about Ranma's unusual request about erasing Shinji's medical report. She also mentioned about her and Ritsuko's assumption that there might be something wrong with Shinji that Ranma didn't want Shinji ever finding out.  
Luna shook her head, "That's not possible. I've been healing Shinji all the time and I've never detected anything physically wrong with him like cancer or such. Aside from having to heal the occasional bruise that pops up every here and there, he's completely normal,"  
"So if it isn't that, then why the hell would Ranma want Shinji's medical record erased?" Priss asked, fairly concerned. She had grown quite attached to the young man and didn't like the thought of there being something wrong with him, whatever it was.  
"We really don't know," Ritsuko answered, "All we've got is a hunch to go with, that Ranma did that for a reason that he seems to know and we've yet to find out,"  
"Why not just ask Ranma then?" Linna asked, "It's probably best to do that,"  
"I did ask him initially when I was requested to do so," Nene said, "But he wouldn't tell me. That's what's got me suspicious. If he told me anything, I probably would've believed him. However, he chose to not tell me anything instead,"  
"That's very strange," Sylia said, "From my point of view, him not telling makes it seem much more serious,"  
"That's the same way I think of it," Ritsuko said, "However, we have no idea why he did so. We can ask Ranma, but if he doesn't want to tell us, then he won't. You can't convince him to do anything if he doesn't want to and telling us seems to be something he doesn't want to,"  
"That's true," several females agreed.  
"What's even worse is that that isn't the only big question we have," Ritsuko said, "We have no idea why Ranma made such a strange request. However, we also don't know why Shinji's becoming so damn powerful,"  
"That's because Ranma's training him," Akane answered without thought.  
"Think about it," Ritsuko said, "It was mentioned that Shinji's about as powerful as Ranma was when he first met Sylia, Priss, Linna, and Nene. However, Ranma had trained for many decades to become that good. Shinji's only been training for a few years. And before you say that it's all due to Ranma training him, take in to consideration that, Akane, you've been training him far longer than Ranma has,"  
Akane scratched her chin, "You make a really good point there. During the time I was training him, he progressed at a slightly faster pace than an average student new to martial arts,"  
"Don't you find it strange then how Shinji became so powerful?" Ritsuko asked.  
"Oh, I think I know," Akane said, "Sure, I've been training Shinji most of the time, but I've never done the stuff that Ranma's done with him. Ever since Ranma came back, Ranma's been using ki to help Shinji fight better,"  
"Do you think that's the reason why?" Ritsuko asked, "You think Ranma giving him ki is what makes him growing powerful by leaps and bounds?"  
"That's not the case," Luna said, "Remember our talk with Ranma not too long ago? Shinji has some kind of unique ability of absorbing ki,"  
"Oh yeah," Akane nodded, "I remember him mentioning that. He also said something about how he stopped giving Shinji ki around the time when started wearing that vest,"  
"You think that vest has anything to do with it?" Ritsuko asked.  
Akane shrugged, "I have no idea,"  
Ritsuko pinched the bridge of her nose, "Great, yet another mystery. Right now, he have no idea why Ranma requested Shinji's medical record be removed. We also don't know why Shinji's becoming so strong,"  
"Maybe we're looking too far in to things," Misato shrugged.  
"It's better to be a realist than anything else," Ritsuko smirked. "Actually, that's not the only mysteries we have," Priss interrupted.  
"What do you mean?" Ritsuko asked.  
"I saw Shinji early this morning while he was on his way to school," Priss said, "He commented about how he wanted to check up on the progress of Ranma's car and tell me about it. However, when he found Ranma in the garage, he was in for a surprise,"  
"You guys have a garage?" Misato looked at Akane.  
"Yes," Akane s By "It's right next to the dojo,"  
"I thought that was a storage shed," Misato commented.  
"I think everyone thought that," Akane smirked, "However, it's a garage,"  
Priss waved a dismissive hand, "That's besides the point. Anyway, Shinji said something about how he saw a pile of scrap metal located in the garage that was taken from underground, in this world's GeoFront,"  
"What the hell would he want to do that?" Linna asked first.  
"That's the mystery," Priss said, "It seems strange that he did that. If you think about it, Ranma went down to GeoFront a few month ago, because he said he was bored. However, if he brought that stuff up, perhaps he went down there for a different reason than being bored,"  
"You think Ranma's up to something?" Luna asked.  
Ritsuko interrupted, "Ranma's definitely up to something. However, because his actions are so random and even seemingly chaotic, I wonder if we will ever figure it out,"  
"Ranma seems to be doing everything for a reason other than supposedly being 'bored'," Sylia said.  
"It seems so,"

Shinji was on his way to school when he bumped in to Ritsuko that Tuesday morning. He was a bit curious as to why Ritsuko seemed to be waiting right by the front gate entrance. Was she there waiting for him?  
"G'morning," Shinji said.  
"Morning," Ritsuko smiled.  
"Are you waiting for someone?" he asked, checking his watch. He had around ten minutes before his first class started so he could stop and chat for a bit.  
Ritsuko smiled, "Yes. I was waiting for you,"  
"Oh?" he perked an eyebrow. She pulled out a needle and syringe, "I'd like you to give me your blood,"  
Shinji took a step back, "What? Why?"  
Bad memories of him being pinned down by Nerv medical staff members and having his blood forcibly removed flash through his mind. It was not something he liked or cared to remember. Sure, it she was doing her job then, but it also didn't help that Ritsuko had been the one that usually had to withdraw the blood from him while he was pinned down. Ritsuko held her hands up in a non-threatening manner, "I didn't mean to scare you or anything. There's just a few tests I'd like to run using your blood,"  
"This isn't our old world," Shinji said.  
"What does that have to do with it?" she asked.  
"I'm not giving my blood," he said, almost defiantly, "Unlike Asuka or even Rei, I don't miss my old world. I don't want to be reminded of anything about it, especially things that pertained to Nerv,"  
Ritsuko was silent for a moment. She knew Shinji had animosity toward Nerv but she never knew he disliked Nerv that much.  
"Shinji, please, just trust me," she said truthfully, "I'm just asking for this because I'm concerned about you,"  
Shinji smirked, "Just like how Nerv was concerned about me?"  
Ritsuko was silent.  
She held the needle out for him, "Fine, then can you give me your blood as a favor? I won't take the blood. If you want, you can do so yourself,"  
"I don't understand the meaning of this," he said, "Why do you want to test my blood all of a sudden?"  
Ritsuko said nothing for several moments. She had to watch what she said. If she said something wrong, it might devastate Shinji which would make Ranma supremely angry. How does one go about finding out if a person was different without that person knowing?  
"What, is there something wrong with me?" he asked, a bit worried.  
Ritsuko quickly shook her head, "No. Nothing like that,"  
"Then why do you want my blood?" he asked once again.  
"Um, I just wanna test out our blood," Ritsuko said glibly, "I think there might be a chance that, um, since we are from a different world, it would seem odd,"  
Shinji shook his head, "That's not possible. Remember when Ranma showed up on our world? It was determined that he was a normal person. If he's from this world and showed up normal, than we would show up normal on this world to," Ritsuko paused for a moment. When then heck did Shinji get so quick witted? Ranma was like that. Did hanging out with Ranma make Shinji become more observant?  
"I'm just doing it for testing purposes," she said, "Can't you just humor me? Keep in mind that I am a scientist you know. I just want to make sure without a shadow of a doubt. That's all,"  
"Why do you want to check me out then?" he asked, "You've got Asuka, Rei, Misato, and even your own blood to do this research on. A forth extra person won't do much of a difference,"  
"But it couldn't hurt," she suggested.  
"I don't wanna give blood," he said, "It bothers me,  
Ritsuko said nothing once again. "Also, I gave blood at the blood drive," he said, "Hypothetically speaking, if there was something wrong with my blood, someone would've picked it up since all places check out blood that's been donated. If they found something, they would've tried to contact me,"  
Ritsuko continued to say nothing.  
"Am I right?" he asked.  
"Look, just take the needle," she said in an almost commanding voice, "Give me your blood because I need to test it,"  
"No," he said defiantly.  
Ritsuko gritted her teeth.  
Damn.  
Why did Shinji have to have grown so much as a person?  
A few months ago, he would've obediently obliged.

Ryoga was walking down the street that day.  
It was somewhere around lunchtime and the sidewalks were busy with people walking about.  
He was clad in his usual attire, a simple pair of black pants and a sleeveless yellow shirt. The two distinctive features about him was the yellow and black bandanna and brown backpack he still sported.  
He looked much the same and differently than what Ranma and the others were used to seeing. His arms indicated that he was more muscular and defined, a product of his training on a different world. As to what world he had been on all this time, only Ryoga seemed to know.  
As he walked about, he seemed to be totally unaware of the stares many of the females gave him. He stood out among the populace, giving off an aura of power much like Ranma. Females seemed to notice this unseen aura and felt drawn to it. In a sense, he attracted as many fond glances as Ranma but seemed to shy away from the attention where Ranma felt indifferent.  
"Hi there," a beautiful woman smiled warmly at him.  
"Um, hello," Ryoga replied nervously, nodding his head. He wondered why so many girls kept talking him. This was the fifteenth beautiful woman that said hi to him. Talking to girls he didn't know made him nervous.  
Several more females said hi and gave him fond looks as he continued along until he finally spotted someone familiar. Walking down the street was Shinji. Ryoga spotted him as he was on his way to the gym after having finished his college classes for the day.  
"Shinji," Ryoga called out to him.  
Shinji, hearing his name, stopped to look around. After a moment, he spotted Ryoga across the street. A look of shock could be seen in the young man's face as he recognized a friend he hadn't seen in several months. Sure, Ryoga did this very often but it was still a pleasant surprise to see him once again.  
"Ryoga," Shinji waved at him.  
Ryoga proceeded to walk across the street, not even bothering to look both ways. As he did so, a semi slammed right in to him, running right over him.  
Shinji gasped in disbelief as he watched the truck come to a skidding halt over a hundred feet down the road, the driver having kept his foot on the brake the whole time.  
He looked over toward where Ryoga was and saw him getting back up to his feet, dusting his clothes. Aside from the slightly dirty clothes, he looked perfectly fine.  
"Um, a-are you okay?" Shinji asked.  
Ryoga nodded, blushing slightly, "Of course. I'm a bit embarrassed though that that happened but I'm otherwise fine. I forgot this world has cars and trucks,"  
"This world? Where have you been all this time?" Shinji asked.  
"Here and there,"  
Shinji face-faulted. After a moment, he laughed.  
Ryoga hadn't changed.

"You've gotten much bigger since I've last seen you," Ryoga commented as he and Shinji walked down the street toward the gym.  
Shinji blushed, "T-thanks. I've been working out and training non-stop,"  
"Seems so," Ryoga nodded, "So what have you been doing these past few months?" Ryoga asked.  
"I'm a pro boxer now," Shinji said proudly, "I've been training for over five months. I've yet to fight my first fight. My debut match is in about a week and a half from now,"  
Ryoga whistled, "Wow. That's very impressive,"  
"I train at Makunouchi Gym," he said, "Ippo, the gym owner, thinks I've got what it takes to become a champion. However, I'm only a Cruiserweight and still need to gain some weight before I will become a Heavyweight,"  
"What kinda training you do to gain weight?" Ryoga asked, "Are you eating right? What do you eat? Are you lifting weights or anything?"  
Shinji went on to explain the strict diet he ate as well as the kind of training he was currently doing, a routine that centered mostly around jogging and jump-rope. "If you wanna gain weight, I recommend wearing a weighted vest," Ryoga said, "It helps build muscle density and will make you gain that weight in pure muscle. You won't grow large and bulky like a weightlifter but will make you just as stronger. Actually, stronger if you wear the vest long enough,"  
Shinji smiled, "I've done that already. Ranma had me wear a vest. I wore it for five months. I took it off not too long ago,"  
"Wow, very impressive," Ryoga said, "How much did it weigh? Judging from your size, I'd say it was somewhere around three hundred and fifty or so pounds, huh?"  
Shinji was stunned silent. After a moment he asked, "Are you and Ranma in on this? Did you talk to Ranma before bumping in to me? You seem to know exactly what Ranma had me do, right down to the approximate weight of the vest,"  
Ryoga shrugged, "I guess Ranma and I would train you in the same way. If I was training you, I'd probably have you do the exact same thing as Ranma had you do,"  
Shinji wondered how good Ryoga was. Ranma was an exceptional fighter and so was Ryoga. However, judging from Ryoga's knowledge of fighting, Shinji wondered if Ryoga was just as good a fighter as Ranma.  
No, that can't be possible, Shinji thought. Ranma's got to be better. Ranma's an Angel and has that AT Field. Ryoga doesn't have anything like that. That is, not unless he's acquired something like an AT Field during his visit to whatever world he's been on all this time.  
"How's everyone doing?" Ryoga asked curiously. "Everything's basically the same as when you left," Shinji said, "The only difference now is that Luna, Lina, and Emiko are staying at our place,"  
"Ah, so they came back, huh?" Ryoga asked, "How come they left in the first place?"  
Shinji shrugged, "I guess they were homesick. Actually, I guess the world to use would be worldsick,"  
He gave a meek laugh, wondering if that joke was what one would consider funny.  
Ryoga smirked. Shinji seemed to have changed quite a bit since he had last seen him. He was more outgoing. It seemed like this new version of Shinji replaced the generally shy, meek one. As to whether this version was an improved version of him, Ryoga couldn't tell. "I'll probably see everyone either later today. Either that or I'll see them all for Friday dinner. You guys still do that, right?" Ryoga asked.  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, we still do that,"  
"Cool," Ryoga cracked his knuckles, grinning, "Where is Ranma?"  
"I'm not too sure," Shinji shrugged, "Why do you ask?"  
"I'm in the mood to hitting him a few times," Ryoga grinned.  
Shinji gave a meek smile. Ryoga hasn't changed one bit. And since Ranma hasn't changed one bit, there was a good chance their rivalry and general animosity toward one another was still evident. It made him wonder if a rivalry like Ranma's and Ryoga's was a healthy rivalry.  
It also made him wonder if he would ever have a rival. The only person Shinji could consider a rival would be Ranma and Ryoga, but they were so far superior to him that the two of them would not consider him a rival.  
"Ranma wanders around a lot," Shinji stated, "He's probably home either teaching classes or out visiting the girls,"  
"Girls? What girls?" Ryoga found himself getting angry. Why the heck would Ranma go out visiting girls when someone as beautiful and amazing like Akane was home?  
Shinji held up his hands defensively, "Y'know, Misato and the others,"  
"Oh," Ryoga calmed down. He felt a bit embarrassed that he jumped the gun. He should had known that Shinji had been referring to Misato and the others.  
The two of them rounded the corner where they saw Emiko standing in front of Makunouchi Gym. She was clad in some plain-looking gray sweat pants and sweatshirt.  
"Hey, Emiko," Ryoga smiled.  
Emiko's eyes widen, "R-Ryoga?"  
"Yep," he nodded.  
"Wow, you're back," she said happily, "Where have you been?"  
"Here and there,"  
Ranma was walking down the street that afternoon when he spotted someone familiar. He spotted Ryoga as he seemed to be walking his way toward the house.  
Looking at his watch, Ranma surmised that Ryoga must've most likely bumped in to Shinji and Emiko and was probably on his way to the house after stopping off at the gym.  
Ranma grinned. He missed Ryoga. Really, he did. No offense to Shinji, but Ranma missed fighting against a truly worthy opponent. He hadn't been challenged in a long long time. The last time he felt like he had a rival was after he came home after his little stint on Lina's and Luna's and Emiko's world and he and Ryoga and Lina challenged each other to a little contest to see who could produce the most powerful projectile attack over the ocean.  
Ranma glanced around and noticed that there weren't many people around. Ryoga didn't seem to notice him.  
He grinned.  
A good ki-blast to the side of Ryoga's head would sure be a funny surprise. Besides, he hadn't seen Ryoga in a long time and was curious as to how much more powerful l#man had gotten since they last met. Ryoga was much like him and constantly trained to get better and better.  
Ranma extended a hand toward Ryoga's direction and shot out a tiny but powerful ki-blast. The projectile rocketed through the air where it struck Ryoga in the side of the head.  
A massive explosion erupted against Ryoga. When the dust cleared up, Ranma was truly surprised when he saw Ryoga standing right where he was, seemingly dusting his clothes.  
"Ooh," Ranma said, "Ryoga's gotten much much stronger since I last saw him. Where the hell has he been?"  
Ryoga suddenly turned in Ranma's direction, extending an arm in his direction and firing a ki-blast in return.  
Ranma didn't seem to flinch at the sight of the incoming ki-blast. All he did was wave a quick hand in front of him as an AT Field suddenly appeared in front of him, the ki-blast erupting against it, leaving Ranma unscathed.  
When the dust cleared up, Ranma found himself face-to-face with Ryoga, Ryoga having covered the distance while the dust cleared.  
The two rivals face one another. They stood the same height and virtually the same build, Ryoga perhaps a bit more muscular. "Ranma," Ryoga sneered, his backpack off. "Ryoga," Ranma smirked, his bracers off.  
The removal of Ranma's and Ryoga's respective bracers and backpack had suddenly removed the power constraint they usually had.  
"I loath you," Ryoga said.  
"So?"

"Ryoga! You're back!" Akane said happily, giving him a hug. She was very pleasantly surprised to see him.  
She had been in the dojo teaching a class when Ryoga entered. Ranma was nowhere to be seen, most likely doing something stupid.  
Ryoga blushed a deep shade of red but thoroughly enjoyed the warm embrace, "Hey, Akane. It's good to be back,"  
She pulled back and regarded him for a moment. Ryoga was a very handsome man and was easy on the eyes. He had grown a bit more muscular than when she last seen him. He stayed the same relative size but his musculature was more defined.  
"When'd you get back?" she asked. "Just a short while ago," he said.  
Akane smirked. She couldn't believe Ryoga was back. What was even more amazing was that she and the others had been talking about him not too long ago, when they were talking about Ranma seemingly having an adventure waiting for him if he chose to go look for Ryoga. Since Ryoga was here, it seems that would not be the case.  
"Man, you seem to show up at the most convenient times," she smiled warmly.  
"That's because he's a walking plot device," Ranma smirked, entering the dojo.  
"I am not!" Ryoga sneered toward Ranma.  
"That's strange coming from you, Ranma," Akane smirked, "You seem to show up much like that as well,"  
Ranma gave Akane and odd look, "And just what's that supposed to mean?"  
Luna and Lina entered the dojo.  
They smiled and greeted Ryoga politely.  
"Ryoga, it's nice to see you again," Luna smiled.  
"Likewise," he gave a meek smile, "Um, how was your trip back home to your world? When did you come back?"  
"The trip was fine," she answered, "We got back a few months ago and've been here since,"  
"What about you?" Lina asked curiously, "Where have you been?"  
She seemed to show Ryoga more sense or respect than she showed Ranma. Perhaps it was because Ryoga was a non-jerk version of Ranma.  
"Y'know, here and there,"  
"Dontcha mean lost?" Ranma smirked.  
Ryoga sneered at Ranma.  
Shinji and Emiko came home from their training at around two-thirty.  
He spotted Asuka sitting by the couch watching television. To his surprise, Lina was there as well. They were both watching the same television show together.  
"Asuka," Shinji asked.  
"What do you want?" she said in annoyance.  
"Did Ritsuko ask you for your blood?" he asked, remembering his conversation with Ritsuko earlier in the day.  
"No, why?" she said.  
"Nevermind," he said.  
Asuka shrugged and continued on watching television.  
"That's odd," Shinji told himself, "If Ritsuko wants to run those tests to see if our being from a different world might make us unique, why hasn't she done so with Asuka?"  
Wanting to take a shower, Shinji headed toward the bathroom. On his way, he saw Ranma coming from the bathroom, his hair damp, most likely from having finished taking a shower.  
"Ah, nothing like a good shower," Ranma commented, especially after a good workout.  
"A workout? What, did you and Ryoga spar against one another?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma shook his head, "No. I was just doing some katas. Ryoga and I will have a contest to see who's better sometime tomorrow,"  
"Ooh, I definitely want to see that," Shinji said in excitement.  
Ranma smirked, "Actually, I don't think you understand what I mean. We won't actually be sparring against one another,  
"You're not?" Shinji asked, scratching his head.  
"We actually can't really fight against one another anymore," Ranma said, a bit said, "At least not in terms of punching and kicking and generally beating the crap outta one another,"  
"Why not?"  
"Because," he replied, "If Ryoga and I fought, even half-assed, a lot of stuff would get destroyed. This doesn't include us using ki-blast against one another. Stuff'll be destroyed just from us punching each other so hard and sending each other every which way,"  
"Oh," Shinji said, a bit sad, "So how do you plan on finding out who's stronger?"  
"Like how it was back then," Ranma grinned, "Luna, Lina, Ryoga, and I are gonna fly out to sea where we could have ourselves a rematch on the contest that we had back then,"  
"You mean a projectile contest?" Shinji asked.  
"Yep,"

Ryoga was tired and wanted to get some sleep. He hadn't slept in a few days. It was somewhere around midnight when he finally decided that he wanted to get some sleep.  
Going in to his room, he languidly walks across the room and flopped down on his bed. However, much to his surprise, he found the bed occupied.  
"What the?" he asked, flipping up the covers.  
Much to his surprise, he found himself looking down at a partially naked Lina. It seems that no one told Ryoga that Luna and Lina had been using his room as their own during the time he had been away.  
"Eek! Pervert!" Lina yelped in surprise, extending her hand forward toward Ryoga's chest and hitting him with a fireball. Since Ryoga was every bit as shocked as Lina, he was unable to react in time to deflect, block, or dodge the close-ranged projectile.  
It struck his chest with thunderous force, sending him flying bodily backwards where he crashed through the wall and basically disappeared in to the night, too far way for the naked eye to see.  
It wasn't until a minute after, when several people rushed in to the room to see what the commotion was, did she realize what had happened.  
Ranma looked at the giant hole in the wall, the stars easily seen through the gaping hole.  
Ranma narrowed his eyes toward Lina.  
She gave a meek smile, "Um, er,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Oh well. Now that I have a car, it won't be all that bothersome carrying the sheetrock that would be needed to fix this hole,"  
Everyone fell to the floor.

Shinji paced back and forth in front of 'D Cluster' the next day.  
What's the significance of Ritsuko asking me about my blood, he thought. Waitaminute, I just recently gave blood. Why is Ritsuko being so paranoid?  
He shrugged. Perhaps it was in her nature. She was a scientist, afterall, and something like that would most likely intrigue her. It's just that he didn't like giving blood and didn't want to take part of it. He felt a bit sad that he would not be able to see the contest. He and many of the others would not be able to see the contest since there was no way they would be able to fly way out to over the Pacific Ocean to observe. Luckily, Luna was not taking part in the contest and would be watching with an open mind. She would be the judge and determine the winner of the contest. She would tell them the results after they get back.  
"Hey, Shinji," came Sumi's voice.  
Shinji turned around and smiled, "Hey, Sumi,"  
"You ready for the test?" she asked.  
"Yeah," he nodded, "I think I'm ready for it. As to how well I'll do, I have no idea,"  
Sumi giggled, "Don't worry. You'll probably do fine,"  
"Thanks," he said.  
Together, the two headed in to the building.  
"Um, are you doing anything this Friday?" he asked.  
"Not really?" she smiled, "Why? You want to do something this Friday night?"  
Shinji blushed, "Well, yeah. I was wondering if you'd like to come to Friday dinner with me and the other again,"  
Sumi gave a sad face, "Unfortunately, I can't. Sen and Alison are coming up to visit,"  
"Oh,"  
Shinji came home as Ranma and the others were getting back from their contest.  
"How'd it go?" he asked to none of them in particular.  
Luna said, "It's really hard to tell. It was basically a draw between Ryoga and Ranma,"  
"Hmph!" Lina muttered under her breath.  
"Sorry," Luna shrugged, "But you know full well that you can't compare. You barely beat them in the previous contest, but at the expense of your getting possess to conjure the power. This time around, it's different,"  
Lina flopped down on the couch. She hated to admit it but she lost badly. Her most powerful spell didn't even compare to Ranma's and Ryoga's weaker attacks. When and how the hell did they get so damn powerful, especially Ranma! With Ryoga, it was understandable since he was gone all this time most likely training. Ranma just lounged around and did nothing except for spar against Shinji. For Ranma to get so powerful, he needed someone to force him to become better. Shinji isn't a worthy opponent that would make Ranma improve.  
Luna smirked, "Seeing how powerful Ranma and Ryoga have gotten, I'm tempted to take part in the contest,"  
Ranma smirked in return, "Oh? How come you didn't take part in the contest we just had?"  
She shrugged, "Didn't feel the need, that is, until I realized that you two are at such a high level," "What, you didn't take part in the first contest because you knew you would've won?" Ranma asked.  
Luna grinned, "Who knows,"  
"Perhaps in the third contest, provided there ever is one," Ranma said.  
"Sure," Luna shrugged.

To Shinji's surprise, he bumped in to Ryoga again while on his way to the gym.  
"Wow, you're back," Shinji smiled.  
"Yeah, I'm kinda surprised myself," Ryoga replied, "I figure I wouldn't find my way back but I guess I did,"  
"I guess things need to be figured out with sleeping accommodations now that you're back," Shinji said, "Since Luna and Lina were using your room when you weren't around, I guess they'll need to room with someone each,"  
"Nah," Ryoga said, jerking a thumb toward his backpack, "They can stay in my room. I've got a tent in my backpack,"  
Shinji regarded the backpack for a moment, "Is it true that your backpack is incredibly heavy?"  
Ryoga nodded, "Yeah. It's gotten heavier over time. It's probably around twelve thousand pounds,"  
Shinji nearly fell to the floor from shock, "Jeez,"  
Ryoga gave a slight smile.  
"Yeah, it's kinda heavy,"  
To everyone's surprise, Ryoga was still around for when Friday dinner when Friday rolled around. They all greeted him happily. Although Misato and the others knew of Ryoga's return, they didn't get a chance to see him until now.  
"So you're here to stay?" Misato asked.  
Ryoga nodded, "Yeah, at least for the time being,"  
"Where have you been all this time?" Ritsuko asked first. She cast Shinji a sideways glance, wondering if he harbored any resentment toward her for when she had tried to get his blood. To her relief, it seemed like he basically forgotten about it. Unfortunately, it still didn't help her one bit since she still didn't have Shinji's blood to test.  
Ryoga went about explaining to everyone about his adventure on another world. Everyone, even Ranma, listened intently. It took a good portion of the entire meal for him to explain it.  
"Man, that was quite an adventure," Sylia commented.  
Ryoga shrugged, "No really. It was kind of annoying actually. After my new friends and I defeated one opponent, in comes another that's stronger than the previous one,"  
"I guess you constantly having to fight stronger and stronger opponents is what made you so powerful, huh?" Luna asked, "Afterall, you and Ranma were basically tied,"  
Ranma shrugged, leaning back in his chair, "Perhaps,"  
Ritsuko observed Ranma for a moment. His body language indicated that he was hiding something when he said that.  
Could he have been holding back?  
"You saw the contest," Ritsuko talked to Luna in privately, "Do you think Ranma was holding back?"  
Luna shook her head, "I don't think so,"  
The two of them were by the back of the group while everyone was on their way to Ranma's house. Since the restaurant was within walking distance from Ranma's house, everyone usually stopped off at his house and walked there from there.  
"How come you ask that?" Luna asked, "Are you suspicious about something?"  
"I don't know," Ritsuko shrugged, "I've been thinking about that talk we've all had about how good Shinji has gotten. I think Ranma's a lot more powerful than he indicates and, somehow, his power seems to be rubbing off on Shinji and, thus, making Shinji more powerful,"  
"What, you think Shinji's becoming powerful doesn't have anything to do with the fact that he's been training extremely hard all this time?" Luna asked, wanting to defend Shinji.  
Ritsuko held up her hands defensively, "I'm not saying that. It's just a speculation. I think there's a chance that Ranma's somehow giving Shinji his own abilities which is what's making Shinji so powerful. If that's the case, it might make sense why he would make it a draw between him and Ryoga, because he doesn't want people to be suspicious that he is this powerful,"  
Luna shook her head, "I don't think that's the case. Ranma's indeed more powerful than before, but if he was insanely powerful, I would be able to sense it. Remember, when Ranma was in that God-version of himself, Emiko and Ryoga and I could easily sense his overwhelming power. If Ranma's overwhelmingly more powerful than Ryoga, then we would've sensed it,"  
"What do you sense?" Ritsuko asked.  
"I sense the same thing from Ranma as I do from Ryoga," Luna said, "I think you're reading more in to this than you believe,"  
"I dunno," she shrugged, "Perhaps,"

Shinji stopped by Sumi's dorm apartment at around eleven-thirty that evening. Having talked to her yesterday night on the phone after Friday dinner, Shinji had been invited to come out with her and her friends for the night.  
"Man, what the heck am I back here again?" he asked himself, "I don't like clubs or anything,"  
"Shinji," came a voice.  
Shinji looked up where he saw Meito looking out from one of the windows.  
"Hey, Meito,"  
"Well be right down," Meito said, "Just give us a minute,"  
"Okay," Shinji said.  
He leaned against the side of the building and glanced around. He noticed students all about the campus, climbing in to cars and taxis, most likely on their way 'downtown' to have a fun night out.  
Seeing that made Shinji wonder if he had what people would consider a social life. If he thought about it, if it weren't for Sumi, he would not be going out. Last week was a good example. When she wasn't around, he didn't do anything that weekend. Wait, that wasn't true. He and Emiko went to the movies on Friday night, even though it was all on a whim.  
Why the heck did I suddenly think about Emiko, Shinji thought.  
As he continued to wait, he wondered what he was getting himself in to. Sumi was definitely different from him in that aspect, tending to like going out and doing things. With him, he was perfectly content at the thought of spending a Friday or Saturday night at home reading a book or watching television. But then again, if he thought about it, Ranma was usually around there to make things interesting.  
Sumi, Meito, Sen, and Alison emerged from the front entrance together.  
"Hey, Shinji, long time so see," Sen smiled, placing an arm around Shinji's shoulder.  
"Um, same here," Shinji gave a meek smile. He could smell the alcohol on Sen's breath. Sen wasn't drunk or even buzzed for that matter. However, it did seem like he was doing a bit of 'pre-game' before heading out for a night out with some friends.  
Shinji greeted everyone as they did so in return.  
"I'm glad you could come," Sumi smiled warmly.  
"Why, it's not like you wouldn'tve gone out without me," Shinji smirked jokingly. However, he knew it was true. He wasn't the type of person people would actively ask to come hang out with them.  
"I guess he's got a point," Sen said, "However, the way I think of it, the more the merrier,"  
They all headed toward Meito's car.

Shinji waited nervously in the line in front of the dance club.  
"I can't believe I'm doing this," he said aloud.  
He was in line to be let in to the dance club called 'Empire MegaTokyo', the same popular dance club where he had been a couple of months before where he had gotten in a fight with those bullies and bouncers. "Don't worry, they won't remember you," Alison commented, smiling warmly at Shinji, "Besides, if someone gives you trouble, it's not like you can't take care of them or anything,"  
"That's not the point," Shinji commented with a sigh.  
"C'mon, guys, let's go somewhere else," Sumi said, noticing how uncomfortable Shinji looked.  
"But this club is great," Sen said, "Sure, something happened last time that cut our fun-time short, but if something like that doesn't happen again, we'll all have a blast,"  
Sumi suggested, "Okay, how about Shinji and I meet you somewhere at a certain time. I'll keep him company while you guys go have fun. Shinji and I can go do other things in the meanwhile,"  
"But-" Meito said, wondering what to say. She was really looking forward to going in to the dance club and having fun but felt it weird to leave Sumi and Shinji to hang out with Alison and Sen, two people she liked but barely knew. "Don't worry about it," Sumi wave a dismissive hand.  
"No," Shinji interrupted, "I don't wanna be the reason for us needing to split in to groups. I'll come with you,"  
"Cool, problem solved," Sen smiled happily.  
Shinji didn't bother saying anything.  
Sumi cast Shinji a meek smile, "I'm sorry. I didn't know my friends were going to drag you in to this. I thought we were going to go to some other club or such,"  
"Don't worry about it,"  
The bouncer didn't recognize Shinji so Shinji was able to get in to the club with no problems. It had been a long time since that incident, afterall.  
However, much to his relief of being able to get in to the club, he was shocked when he recognized a familiar-looking face.  
He and the others were in the basement level of the dance club. The basement level was a bit different than when they had last been there, the two separate bars removed and combined in to one large bar by the back right of the area so a large dance floor could be put in its place.  
"Oh my god! It's that guy!" Shinji found himself sneering, pointing toward the corner of the room.  
Sumi looked over toward where Shinji was pointing and recognized the person. It was the short-haired man from back then. The only difference was that the guy seemed to have let his hair grow out. The man didn't seem to be sporting an ankle brace or anything of the like, his ankle most likely having healed since then. He looked like he was with a few of his friends. Judging by the people hanging around him, it looked like he had four friends with him.  
"Let's get out of here before something happens again," Sumi nudged at Shinji's arms.  
Shinji gritted his teeth for a moment. "No, not this time,"  
"W-what?" Sumi's eyes widened in surprise.  
Before she could say anything else, Shinji walked off.  
Shinji's heart was beating rapidly as he made his way across the crowded room toward the guy.  
"I can do this," he told himself, "If I don't end this now, it'll probably continue on,"  
Shinji stepped right up to the man.  
The man glanced over and instantly recognized Shinji.  
Shinji got right up in the man's face, his face just inches from his. Although the man stood a good head taller and significantly heavier than Shinji, Shinji showed no signs of being intimidates even though his heart was racing at a mile per minute.  
"Remember me?" Shinji said.  
The man's eyes widened, "You!"  
The four friends that was nearby glanced over and noticed Shinji. Two of them recognized him as well, having been there the first time when the fight broke out.  
"Yeah, what about me?" Shinji said, his gaze intent on the man.  
The man hesitated for a moment. He didn't really know what to do. He recognized Shinji and found himself instantly angry toward the young man. But for some odd reason, his body didn't want to move. Shinji may be small but the man knew what he was capable off.  
"Look, I don't want any trouble," the man held up his hands defensively.  
"I remember you!" the friend said.  
Shinji looked over to the friend. He didn't recognize him at first. Everything had been a blur that night. He turned his gaze back toward the guy he recognized, "Is another fight going to break out again? Because if it does, you're going to be the first person I'm going after. I never paid you back for sending your friends after me,"  
The man said nothing.  
Shinji suddenly saw a white flash cloud his vision has he was suddenly hit with a bottle in the side of his head. However, unlike the first time around, it affected much less, he having caught a glimpse of it through his peripheral vision. As to why he didn't dodge it, no one knew.  
Shinji executed an open-palm strike toward the guy in front of him's chest. He had said if a fight was going to break out, the guy was the first person he was going after.  
The man was sent staggering backwards where he ended hitting in to an edge of a nearby table, falling over it, drinks spilling everywhere, and falling to the floor, unconscious.  
Shinji turned his attention toward the guy that hit him with a bottle. When he saw his face, he suddenly recognized the man. It was the same man that had hit him with a bottle the first time around.  
Seeing an incoming fist, Shinji tilted his head forward and let the guy's fist crash against the top of his head. The impact of the man's fist against the extremely hard portion of Shinji's skull resulted in the man pulling his hand away, three of his fingers dislocated.  
Shinji slapped the guy in the side of the face. From anyone's point of view, it looked like a bitch slap. However, the impact sent the guy staggering toward one side where he hit his head against a nearby wall and fell to the floor unconscious.  
Satisfied that two of the guys were out for the count, Shinji turned his attention toward the three remaining friends. They had this puzzled look on his face as they wondered what they should do.  
By now, several nearby patrons had stopped what they were doing to observe.  
"They had what was coming to them," Shinji stated, waiting to react to whatever any of the three friends would do.  
One of them held up their hands defensively, "Hey, we don't want no trouble,"  
"Neither did I," Shinji said.  
They stood there, not saying a word for several moments. Realizing that they weren't going to attack him, Shinji allowed himself to relax a bit.  
"Tell your friends that this makes us even," Shinji stated, gesturing toward the man that had flipped over the table, "If I see him in the street again, I'll ignore him. However, if he tries to do anything to me...I won't go easy on him next time,"  
"Um, w-we'll be sure to tell him," one of the friend's gulped.  
Satisfied that this part of his life was behind him, that he had managed to solve a problem all on his own and under his own power, Shinji walked off to be with Sumi and the others.

Shinji entered the house at around two in the morning. Although considered early for a weekend, he was glad to be home. After the incident at the dance club, he and his friends didn't stay there all that long and had figured it was best to call it a night.  
He had only gotten home later than expected because they had stopped off to get some pizza to help sober Sen up, him having drunk a good amount of alcohol during his short stay at the club.  
A bit thirsty, Shinji went in to the kitchen to get a quick drink before going to sleep. There, he was surprised to see that Luna was in there.  
"Hey, Shinji," Luna smile.  
"Oh, hey," Shinji said, "How come you're up this late?"  
Luna smirked, "I was about to ask you. But then again, you're young and have friends to go out with on weekend nights so I guess it's understandable,"  
"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Shinji shrugged, "I don't think I'm cut out for the 'night-life'. I know I should be like the typical college student and going out with friends and going to parties and dance clubs and such, but I don't think I'm cut out for it. I don't have much fun doing that,"  
"So stay home then," Luna suggested logically.  
"I would, but that's not what people consider 'normal', whatever that means," Shinji sighed.  
Luna smirked, "I stay home on weekend nights. Am I considered not 'normal'?"  
Shinji held up his hands defensively, "No. I didn't mean it like that,"  
"I know what you mean," she laughed softly, "What, are you obligated to go out every weekend?"  
"Well, no," he shrugged.  
"So don't go out if you don't feel like it," she said, "Who cares if you stay home or not? What, are you worried about what people think if you stay home a lot instead of going out?"  
Shinji said nothing.  
"Ranma stays home," Luna said, "And I'm sure he doesn't care what people think,"  
"I guess you have a point," he said.  
Luna smiled. Shinji wasn't completely his own person, still wanting to conform if possible. However, she saw in him a yearning to break away from that conformity. Man, that Shinji grows fast, she thought. Shinji opened the fridge and looked inside, producing a bottled water a second later. As he did so, Luna noticed a small cut on the side of Shinji's face she hadn't noticed before.  
"What happened?" she asked.  
"What do you mean?" he asked curiously, taking a drink of his water.  
She pointed toward the small cut on the side of his face.  
"Oh, I got in a fight," Shinji sounded a bit embarrassed about telling her, "Um, I got hit in the side of the head with a beer bottle,"  
Luna's eyes widened, "Are you okay?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't really hurt because I saw it coming,"  
"You're bleeding slightly from the cut," she commented.  
"I am?" he asked, surprised, "I thought it stopped. I touched a napkin to it and thought the blood had finished coagulating shortly before I started coming home. I guess it just started bleeding again,"  
Luna suddenly remembered the conversation she had with Ritsuko earlier about how Ritsuko was trying to get Shinji's blood sample and had failed.  
"Here, let me heal you," she said.  
"There's no need," he said, "It's just a small cut. It won't leave a large scar or anything,"  
Luna smirked, "What's with you men thinking scars are cool, like some kind of medal to be worn?" Shinji gave a meek smile, "I dunno,"  
"C'mere, I'll heal you," she commanded.  
"Um, okay," he said, not wanting to go against her words.  
"Thanks," he said, leaning forward for her to get a better look at the small cut.  
Luna grabbed a napkin and dabbed it against the cut, letting it absorb a bit of the blood that was seeping out.  
"Don't worry, I'm just doing it so it doesn't get on your shirt," she said, already knowing that Shinji was going to ask what she was doing that in the first place.  
"Oh,"  
After a short moment, satisfied that there was enough blood on the napkin for Ritsuko to work with, Luna used her other hand and held it close to the cut. Saying a quick chant that Shinji couldn't understand, her hand glowed slightly as the cut suddenly seal up and disappeared.  
When Luna pulled her hand away, Shinji touched the area where the cut was and looked at his hand. He felt no pain and saw no blood. "Thanks," he smiled.  
"No problem," she smiled.  
Shinji yawned, "Well, I'm gonna go to sleep now. G'night,"  
"Night," she said.  
After Shinji left, Luna looked at the slightly bloody napkin in her hands.  
"I hope this is a good enough sample,"

Shinji woke up early in the morning, somewhere around seven in the morning. This was unusual because he usually slept in late on weekends, wanting to enjoy his days off from going to classes.  
Looking around, he noticed that Emiko wasn't in her bed.  
"Man, she wakes up early even on weekends," he commented. She was never sleeping when he woke up, most likely having woken up somewhere around dawn.  
Taking a shower and getting dressed, Shinji figured he would head on over to the dojo to see who was already in there.  
"I'll most likely see Ranma in there," he commented.  
As he crossed the backyard, he saw Ryoga's tent. Ryoga had been sleeping in the tent ever since he came back, choosing to sleep in a tent than in his own bed. That was rather considerate of him to do so so Luna and Lina would not be separated and roomed with other house members.  
Shinji caught sight of Ryoga's backpack sitting by the side of the tent. This surprised him because Ryoga was most likely up and about but without his backpack. Ryoga never went anywhere without his backpack, right?  
"Morning, Shinji," came a voice.  
Shinji turned his attention toward the house where he saw Akane standing by the porch.  
"Morning," he responded. He then gestured toward the backpack, "How come Ryoga's backpack is here? I thought he carries it with him all over the place,"  
Akane smirked, "He does. However, he's taking a shower. Much like how you have to remove your weighted vest when you showered, Ryoga has to do the same,"  
"Oh," Shinji gave a meek smile, embarrassed.  
"Since you're up early, what would you like for breakfast?" Akane asked, "You're still on a strict diet, right? What would you like?"  
"Um, I dunno," he gave a meek smile.  
"All right, I'll just surprise you," she smiled, heading back in to the house.  
Shinji smiled, "Thanks,"  
He turned his attention down toward the backpack by his feet. Curiosity getting the better of him, Shinji wanted to see if he was capable of lifting the backpack.  
Bending at his knees, he grabbed a hold of the shoulder straps of the backpack. He took several deep breaths.  
"Ryoga makes it look so easy," Shinji told himself, "It can't be really that heavy. Perhaps he's just exaggerating,"  
Shinji took several more deep breaths before he tried to straighten his legs up in to a standing position, his hands clenched tightly around the shoulder straps. However, much to his surprise, the backpack didn't so much as budge.  
"Goddamn!" Shinji swore under his breath, the muscles of his entire body shaking from the strain as he tried his hardest to lift the backpack, much to no avail.  
Shinji's mind didn't call it quits but his body did. He felt his back muscles spasm, sending a jolt of pain up the length of his back.  
"Jeez," Shinji gritted his teeth, releasing his grip on the backpack, falling to his knees, rubbing at his back.  
"You okay?" came a voice.  
Shinji fought back the pain in his back and looked up.  
It was Ranma. He had seen Shinji trying to lift Ryoga's backpack but said nothing, curious as to how far he would push his body in an attempt to lift it before finally giving up.  
"I think my back gave out," Shinji winced.  
Ranma chuckled, "Of course you will, especially trying to lift Ryoga's backpack,"  
"I guess I shouldn'tve let my curiosity get the better of me," Shinji said.  
Ranma crouched over by where Shinji was, "Don't move. Lettme fix you up,"  
"How?"  
Ranma pressed a few pressure points on Shinji's back. Before he even realized what happened, the pain Shinji felt disappeared completely.  
Shinji got back up to his feet, shocked, "Whoa, I feel fine now,"  
"I pressed a few pressure points," Ranma smirked, "Luna ain't the only one that can heal ya,"  
"It seems so," Shinji did a few standing twists to test out his back. It felt perfectly fine.  
"You're up early," Ranma commented.  
"Yeah," Shinji shrugged, "I was about to head in to the dojo to see what was up,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Nothing much. I was just coming from training Oki. If you want, you can still catch him. He's getting changed now,"  
"How's he coming along?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma smirked, "Fine. Why the heck do you need to ask me? You see him at the gym all the time and should see clearly his progress,"  
"Well, we do see each other all the time at the gym, but we don't spar against one another," Shinji said, "I've basically been doing jump-rope and jogging these past couple of weeks,"  
"Ah, speaking of which," Ranma asked, "How goes your getting used to your 'new' body? Have you gotten used to not having the vest on?"  
Shinji nodded, "Actually, yeah. I've already gotten used to it,"  
Ranma grinned, "Cool. I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised, you haven't accidentally hit your head against the rafters of the dojo recently,"  
"Ha ha," Shinji said sarcastically, all the while smirking.  
Ranma jerked a thumb toward the dojo, "Why dontcha go check up on Oki? Perhaps you two can have a sparring match,"  
"Y'know what? That sounds like a good idea,"

Shinji held his hand out for Oki to take.  
Oki was lying on his back in the middle of the dojo, defeated. He had had enough. He knew when it was time to call it quits. He was not going to beat Shinji.  
Oki took Shinji's hand and got up too his feet. As he did so, he limped a bit as he tried to stay afoot. He couldn't believe how much his right leg was killing him.  
Shinji had blocked one of Oki's roundhouses with his shin which resulted in Oki actually getting hurt.  
"Sorry about that," Shinji said, "I didn't realize it was going to hurt you that much blocking your kick like the way you taught me,"  
Oki waved a dismissive hand, "It's no problem. I hate to say this, but I'm very proud and jealous of you,"  
"Oh?"  
"You've only been training at making your shins stronger for only a short time," Oki said, "I'm proud that you got so good, but I'm also jealous that you seemed to have blown right past me in that department,"  
Shinji laughed, "I dunno. My shin is killing me too,"  
"Well, you hide the pain really well," Oki commented.  
"I think it's because I'm constantly getting a beat-down from Ranma that I'm used to getting hurt," Shinji gave a meek smile.  
Shinji and Oki laughed aloud.  
"So, are you excited about the upcoming tournament?" Shinji asked shortly after they stopped laughing, "It's only, what, about a month away,"  
"I'm excited about it," Oki nodded, "However, I'm more excited about my upcoming debut match,"  
"Yeah, it's next week," Shinji commented, "At Kajura hall,"  
"Right," Oki smiled, "On the same day and at the same place where you'll be having your debut match as well,"  
Shinji smiled happily, "Man, who would've thought that we'd end up having our debut match in the same night and place,"  
"I know," Oki said happily, "However, my match is the first match for that night. Yours won't start until the third match,"  
"Don't worry, I'll be there early to root for you," Shinji said.  
"And I'll be sure to stay after my match to root for you," Oki said.

Luna nearly scared the life out of Ritsuko when Ritsuko opened the door that lead out to a balcony that was located outside her bedroom to let in some fresh air and found her hovering right outside that balcony.  
"Oh man, you almost scared me half to death," Ritsuko's heart had skipped a beat.  
Luna smiled, "Sorry,"  
Ritsuko opened the door all the way to allow Luna to however inside.  
"So what brings you here so early in the morning?" Ritsuko asked, "It's what, around seven,"  
"I've got something I figure you might be interested in," Luna said, producing a small napkin that was in a seal plastic bag.  
Ritsuko took the bag and inspected its contents.  
Her eyes widened, "Is this what I think it is?"  
"Yes," Luna smiled, "It's Shinji's blood. He had a small cut last night and I managed to get a small sample of his blood right before I healed him. However, I don't know if this is a helpful enough quantity,"  
"Oh it's fine," Ritsuko smiled happily, "A drop is all I need,"  
"I would've dropped it off last night actually," Luna commented, "But it would've been at around two-thirty to three in the morning and I'd let you sleep,"  
"Actually, I was up then but I understand," she said, "Thanks,"  
"No problem,"

The week went by with relative ease and without incident.  
Shinji spent his weekdays attending classes in the morning and going to the gym where he would meet up with Emiko afterwards. There, he found himself in for a surprise when Ippo changed his training routine.  
"There isn't even a week left until your debut match," Ippo had said.  
"I know, I'm excited and nervous about it at the same time," Shinji had commented.  
"Since you've gotten used to your body not being encumbered with that weighted vest, it's time we change your training routine accordingly," Ippo said, "From here on until your debut match, you'll be doing nothing but sparring. This will make you used to what's in store for when you do fight for real,"  
"What about jogging?" Shinji asked, "Emiko and I jog together,"  
Emiko blushed. She had been thinking the same thing and had been embarrassed about asking the same question.  
"She can jog alone," Ippo said.  
Emiko's visage saddened. She and Shinji will no longer be training together? She had gotten so used to training with Shinji that she didn't like the thought of training alone.  
"It'll only be for a week," Ippo smirked, "I'm sure you guys can make do without training together for that long. Even though you're probably more than capable of winning this match, it's best not to take chances. You need to spar against opponents to get your body used to fighting and such. While you've been trying to get used to not wearing the vest anymore, your body's been getting used to jogging. We need to get it used to fighting so that's why we need you sparring,"  
"Um, I guess you have a point," Shinji said, casting Emiko a glance when she wasn't looking. He couldn't help but feel sad that he wouldn't be training along side Emiko. He was so used to training with her that it felt natural.  
"Um, how about I just jump-rope right by the ring when Shinji spars?" Emiko suggested.  
Ippo smiled, "Sure. You can do that if you want,"  
Emiko and Shinji both smiled.  
Halfway through the week, Shinji approached Sumi as she was packing up her books at the conclusion of the day's first class.  
"How'd you do on the test?" he asked. They had received their test back that day.  
"I did fine," she smiled warmly.  
"A hundred?" he smirked. If she did, he wouldn't be all that surprised. She shook her head, "Not quite. I got a ninety seven,"  
"That's great," he said.  
"How did you do?"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, not that great. I got an eighty-five,"  
"Really?" Sumi was surprised, "That's only slightly higher than the class test average. What happened? I thought you studied,"  
"I guess I didn't study enough," he sighed, hanging his head low, "I think it's because I've been spending more and more time training instead of studying,"  
"That's probably why," she surmised.  
"Um, are you doing anything this Friday?" he asked, changing the subject.  
She shook her head, "No,"  
"Would you like to come to Friday dinner with my friends and I? Y'know, like last time," he asked nervously.  
She smiled, "Of course. Actually, I was kinda hoping you would ask. That's why I left my weekend open. We didn't do that much last weekend because my friends came up to visit and I figure I'd make it up to you. We can spend the whole weekend together,"  
"The whole weekend?" Shinji asked, a bit surprised.  
"What, you don't want to?" she asked.  
Shinji blushed, "No. It's nothing like that. It's just that my debut match is this Saturday,"  
"I know," she smiled warmly, "I'll be there rooting for you. I figure we can spend the day together before the match. Perhaps go see a movie or go to the amusement park. Or better yet, we can go jam. There's a piano doing in 'Z-  
Cluster' and can go play there,"  
"That sounds like a good idea,"

"Um, Shinji,"  
"Hm?" he asked.  
He and Emiko were on their way home later that week. The two of them had just finished their separate workout at the gym and had also finished stopping off at the deli for their usual meal.  
"Your debut match is this Saturday," she started off.  
He smirked, "I know,"  
She blushed. It wasn't that she was trying to remind him or anything, she just wanted to start the subject off that way.  
"Um, I was curious as to what you were doing that day, before your debut match that is," she asked, "Um, I-I was kinda hoping maybe, um, you and I, we can go to the bookstore together,"  
She didn't really know how he would respond but she knew he liked going to the bookstore. She had noticed that every Sunday, he would go to the bookstore, most likely to see if any new boxing magazines came out. She wondered if it would be considered a date, to go to the bookstore together. It was very simple, but since she didn't have much money, only asking to borrow money from Akane when absolutely necessary, they couldn't do anything all that entertaining that didn't require money.  
"Um, perhaps go to the park after," she added. Going there didn't require any money either.  
Shinji thought about for a moment. That sounded extremely appealing. He liked doing simple things like that, like walking around town and watching people walking about, or going to the bookstore, or even throw a ball back and forth.  
Just as he was about to happily accept, Sumi's image flashed in his mind.  
"Well?" she asked nervously, fidgeting slightly. She was eager for an answer and ever second he didn't answer felt like an eternity.  
"I'm sorry," he said, truly apologetic and sad, "But I can't. Sumi asked me first. She wants me to go hang out with her then,"  
"Oh," she felt extremely sad. She had been inwardly worried that that would've been the case but hoped against hope that it wouldn'tve been.  
"However, if you want, we can do that on Sunday," he suggested, smiling slightly.  
"Um, I guess," she didn't feel all that happy.

Emiko was very depressed as she entered her room and flopped down on her bed after she got home. Although she was supposed to be trained by Shinji after they got home from the gym, she had gracefully talked her way out of it.  
Not that she ever had Shinji to begin with, but she sure felt like she was losing him. What made things worse was that she was angry at herself for being so wishy-washy. She desperately wanted to know what she was doing wrong, wanted to know why the relationship book she got a while ago wasn't working. She wanted to ask Akane or Luna for advice since they already knew about her liking Shinji, but they would be of no help. They both liked Ranma and they were basically in the same situation as her. It was like asking the blind to lead the blind.  
She could ask Ranma for his advice. He would be much more helpful since he was a guy and knew Shinji better than anyone else. However, it would be astronomically embarrassing.  
Emiko stuck her head in her pillow.  
"What am I supposed to do?"  
Shinji paced back and forth in front of 'D Cluster' the next day as he waited for Sumi and their first class to begin.  
What's bothering Emiko, he thought. She's obviously depressed over something but she won't tell me. She being bothered about something is bothering me as well. We're like best friends but why won't she tell me what's up? It's like she's embarrassed to say.  
Shinji found himself thinking more and more about Emiko these past few days. Although she acted as if nothing was wrong, he knew her well enough that he knew something was up even though she was pretending otherwise.  
"Something the matter?" Sumi asked Shinji.  
Shinji looked and found himself looking at Sumi, "Sumi, when'd you get here?"  
She smiled, "About two minutes ago. I didn't say anything because you look deep in thought. Is something the matter?"  
"Kinda," he said, figuring it couldn't hurt to tell her.  
"What is it?"  
"Emiko's been depressed recently," Shinji said, "However, I have no idea why,"  
Sumi's lips became a thin line upon hearing Emiko's name. She knew Shinji and Emiko were friends. She also wasn't an idiot and knew that Emiko liked Shinji. She noticed the sideways glances that Emiko sometimes cast toward Shinji when she believed no one was looking. However, she knew what kind of person Emiko was. Emiko and she were much the same. If she were in the same situation as Emiko, she would act in much the same manner, not quite bowing out but backing off.  
The thing is is that made her wonder about something. Did Emiko love Shinji or just really like him? Sumi, on the other hand, knew she liked him but was pretty sure she didn't love him, at least not yet. However, with every passing day, Sumi found herself slowly falling for him more and more. She knew that sooner or later, it would hit her, that she was in love with him.  
However, had Emiko gone through the same thing as what Sumi was going through right now and came to that conclusion about herself? Was Sumi's appearance a sudden uncalled complication? The problem was that was the way life was. Things were always so clear-cut and black and white. There were always jagged gray areas.  
"Um, what do you think it is?" she asked, already knowing the answer.  
"I dunno. You think it could be because of, um, y'know, that time of the month?" he asked.  
"Oh my god! I can't believe you just said that!" Sumi gasped in shock.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, n-nevermind. F-forget I said that,"  
Sumi sighed, "Even if it is something like that, you don't bring it up,"  
"Okay," he said, "I won't think like that anymore,"  
She smirked, "Lettme ask you, if I act like something was bothering one day, did you believe that it was that time of the month for me,"  
"Um, I'm not going to answer that," he said nervously.  
Man, Shinji learns quickly, Sumi thought.  
She smiled. She shouldn't be all that upset anyway. Shinji was a guy, afterall. Didn't most guys think that whenever a girl was acting like they were bothered or upset?  
Friday rolled around. Everyone, Ryoga and Sumi as well, found themselves gathered around a large round table for their usual Friday dinner.  
Sumi met Ryoga for the first time. Much like how she was with everyone else, Ryoga liked her. She was a nice girl. He assumed that she was Shinji's girlfriend, what with Shinji being the only one to meet up with her and bring her to the restaurant. However, he chose not to say anything, not wanting to embarrass Shinji if she wasn't his girlfriend.  
"So, how do you and Shinji know each other?" Sumi asked Ryoga, curious. It seemed like everyone was good friends with Shinji.  
"Ranma and I met him on his world when he was piloting his EVA, Unit-01," Ryoga said.  
"Erk!" Shinji's eyes widened.  
"What?" Sumi asked.  
"N-nothing. N-nothing at all," Shinji quickly sat upright, "H-he was just joking around,"  
Ryoga gave Shinji and odd look. After a moment, he suddenly realized that Sumi didn't seem to know about Shinji's past or perhaps Shinji didn't want her knowing about it.  
"Um, yeah, I was just joking around," Ryoga gave a meek smile.  
Shinji and Sumi walked home together that night after Friday dinner. "So, what would you like to do tomorrow?" Sumi asked.  
"Well, I can't do anything early in the morning," Shinji said, "I hafta head down to Kajura Hall to be weighed-in, to make sure I'm not over or under the weight class since I'll to be fighting as a Cruiserweight,"  
"I know we'll be going there together with everyone else, but exactly where is Kajura Hall anyway?" she asked.  
"It's around thirty miles north from here," Shinji said, "We'll be taking three cars,"  
"Three cars?" Sumi's eyes widened, "Are you sure that's enough? There's, what, around twenty people going. Three cars won't be enough,"  
"Actually, Priss is riding on her motorcycle," Shinji said, blushing, "And, unfortunately, Ranma wants to test out his station wagon so a majority of the group will be going in that car,"  
"Um, okay," she didn't have much to say, "Back to the subject, what would you like to do tomorrow? That is, after you're done with your weigh-in,"  
"Well, didn't you say you want to go to the movies or go to the amusement park?" he asked, "Or better yet, I can get my cello and we can go to 'Z-cluster' and play a few songs,"  
"What do you suggest?" she asked.  
"I wouldn't mind jamming,"

Shinji's nervousness wasn't as bad as what he figured it would be during the morning weigh-in because Oki was there with him that Saturday morning.  
"I don't care what the scale says, you still don't look like a Cruiserweight," Oki commented.  
Shinji chuckled. He and Oki were in the locker rooms of Kajura Hall, a stadium-like building that was usually used for giving musical concerts, not boxing matches. They were both wearing nothing more than their underwear, there waiting on line to be weighed-in, Although Shinji was very muscular and defined, he had a body structure of a Middleweight. He looked like he weighed around a hundred and sixty pounds, not around a hundred and ninety pounds.  
Ippo was in the room nearby, hanging out with what looked like other fellow gym owners.  
Ippo had driven the two of them up to Kajura Hall. Emiko would've been there with them to keep Shinji company but was forced to decline since she would not be allowed in the locker room and would've spent a majority of her time there waiting outside. "Hey, whatcha doing after this?" Oki grinned.  
Shinji asked, "Why do you ask?"  
"Because, after the weigh-in, we can eat like pigs," Oki grinned, "We've been dieting to make the weigh-in. Once we're weighed-in, we can eat the nastiest, greasiest, most unhealthy food we can find because we won't have to worry about it affecting our weight,"  
"Really?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
Oki nodded, "Yeah. You game?"  
Shinji nodded without a second thought.  
"Yeah! Count me in!"

Ippo had a big smirk on his face as he watched Shinji and Oki eat like kings. Although it was his treat and he was very wealthy, Ippo couldn't help but wonder if he would have to go to a nearby ATM to withdraw some extra money to pay for the amount of food Shinji and Oki ate.  
"Man, after this meal, you'll probably be up a couple of weight classes," Ippo smirked.  
"We wouldn't be surprised," Oki grinned.  
"Enjoy your meal," Ippo said, "Keep in mind that this will be the only meal you'll be eating all day. We can't have you stomach full of food for your fight,"  
"We understand," Shinji said.  
Shinji felt sick when he got home.  
"Is something the matter?" Emiko asked, noticing Shinji seemingly in pain.  
"I don't think all that unhealthy food I ate agreed with me," he said, flopping down on the couch, glad that Lina wasn't occupying it like she usually did. He had felt fine most of the morning. However, when he was on his way home from the gym, he started feeling sick.  
"What happened?" she asked, wondering if she should get Akane and Luna.  
"After the weigh-in, Oki and I stuffed our faces," he answered, "I guess it was some kinda tradition boxers did after weigh-ins. However, I think I overdid it and gave myself a stomachache,"  
Emiko giggled, "Well, what do you expect? You've been on a strict diet all this time and suddenly you eat a massive quantity of food. Dontcha think that would give you an upset stomach considering you stomach is only used to receiving a daily supply of healthy food?"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "You've got a point,"  
"Here, let me cure that for you," she said.  
"You can cure me?" Shinji was surprised.  
She nodded, "Yes. It sounds like you've got a stomachache. I can press a few pressure points that'll make it go away. You want me to do that?"  
"Wow, yeah, please," he said, "What do you want me to do?"  
"Just continue to lie on your front," she said.  
She looked down at Shinji's back, her heart starting to beat rapidly. She was nervous about touching him because the task at hand was almost an intimate form of physical contact. However, since Shinji seemed to be suffering, she figured she could push away her nervousness to help him out.  
Shinji's back muscles tightened up slightly when he felt both of Emiko's small hands press down on the small of his back. Her fingers felt hot even though the shirt he was wearing.  
He felt her fingers press firmly against his lower back.  
As she did so, he suddenly felt the queasy feeling he was getting suddenly start abating. Before long, the feeling disappeared completely.  
When Emiko pulled her hands away, Shinji sat upright, "Wow, it worked. I don't feel sick anymore,"  
She gave a shy smile, "I'm glad you feel better,"  
"Thanks," he said, "I'm glad you were around,"  
She blushed, "I-It's no problem,"

Shinji rubbed at his lower back as he walked down the street toward Sumi's dorm apartment that afternoon. In his hands he was carrying the case that held the cello he borrowed from Melinda. He could still feel the heat from the fingertips centered around that part of his body. It was tingling sensation. He knew it wasn't a physical thing more of a mental thing that made him feel that.  
Is something wrong with me, he thought to himself. Why is Emiko effecting me like this? He banished the thought when he arrived at Sumi's dorm apartment. He was surprised to see Sumi waiting outside for him. However, considering he had called her and told her he was on his way, perhaps it wasn't all that surprising.  
They greeted each other and talked for a short while before they headed off toward 'Z-cluster' which was located on the other side of campus.

"Man, jamming is so fun," Shinji commented, smiling happily.  
"I like it too," Sumi smiled.  
It was around for in the afternoon.  
Shinji and Sumi were on their way back to the house after having spent around three hours playing their respective musical instruments in 'Z-cluster'.  
"You want to do it tomorrow as well?" Sumi asked.  
"Sure," he said. After a moment, he said, "Oh no, I can't,"  
"You can't?" she asked, "What, you're busy?"  
He nodded, "Yeah, Emiko and I are gonna go to the bookstore and park together. However, we can do it on Monday or so,"  
"You and Emiko get along really well together, huh?" Sumi smiled warmly. She couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of Emiko, a girl she didn't know all that much about.  
Shinji didn't hesitated to answer, "Yeah. We train and do a lot of stuff together. Anyway, tomorrow's no good. You want to try doing it on Monday or next week?"  
"Okay," she said.  
The two of them arrived back at the house before long, somewhere around four-  
thirty, plenty of time for Shinji to get ready to head out to Kajura Hall. To his surprise, everyone was there, even the usually-busy Priss. Oki was there as well. They were all gathered around in the backyard, a table full of snacks and refreshments nearby.  
"Wow, you're all here already?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma smirked, "Well, we will be leaving in a bit. The plan was that we all leave from here. That's why everyone's here. We were beginning to wonder when you two will be back,"  
"Well, we're back," Shinji gave a shy smile.  
Shinji nervously paced back and forth in his dressing room later that night. In there were Ippo, Ranma, and Ryoga. Ryoga and Ippo got along fine even though they only met on the night of Shinji's debut match.  
Oki had had his debut match and had won easily. Now it was Shinji's turn.  
"My heart feels like it's going to burst," Shinji said, "I feel so nervous. These trunks I'm wearing don't help either,"  
Shinji was already wearing his gloves and was in a pair of purple and green boxing trunks. He was not amused when Akane surprised him with that shortly after he got back home. However, because she had actually made the pants herself, he would not dare to decline.  
"Heh," Ranma chuckled, "Sure, the color seems weird, but it matches the color of the EVA you piloted,"  
"I think I know that," Shinji said sarcastically, "Piloting an EVA the color of the one I had kinda stays ingrained in one's mind. There's no need to remind me,"  
"Just jab at the wall a few times," Ranma said, "It'll help you loosen up,"  
"O-okay," Shinji said, "Man, I hope I'm ready for this,"  
They watched as Shinji walked over to the wall. Ranma, not having seen Shinji punch with punching gloves on in the longest time, was curious how good his form was. It was most likely perfect but he couldn't be sure. When they sparred, Shinji punched at him with perfect form, but from a martial arts stance. He was curious how Shinji's form was when punching from a boxing stance.  
Shinji tapped the wall a few times, the sound of the his glove hitting the wall making a snapping sound, like that of a whip.  
"Wow, Shinji, you've got perfect form for a jab," Ryoga commented, seeing Shinji's punch for the very first time.  
"Thanks," Shinji said nervously.  
"Heh, if that's the power of your jab, I'd hate to be the opponent on the receiving end of one of your stronger punches," Ryoga added.  
Shinji executed a straight punch, wondering if Ryoga would make a comment about how good his form was for that punch.  
To Ryoga's and Ippo's surprise, Shinji's gloved-fist struck the wall and became embedded in it, the concrete caving inward from the force of the impact.  
Ranma smirked, "Heh, seems like he's ready,"

new stuff 11/10

Everyone waited for Shinji to emerged from the arena entrance and approach the ring. The only people that weren't there were Ippo, Ryoga, and Ranma.  
Sumi was between Priss and Oki.  
Oki found himself staring at Shinji's girlfriend far longer than he cared to believe. Tonight's fight was the first time he ever met her. He had heard about her from Shinji before, but this was the first time he ever saw her.  
She was very pretty and smart. It would be so cool to be Shinji and have a girlfriend like her.  
Oki bonked himself in his head, angry at himself.  
What the heck's wrong with me, he thought. Sumi is Shinji's girlfriend. I shouldn't be thinking these kinda thoughts about her. Besides, she's older than me and wouldn't pay me any attention if it weren't for the fact that I'm Shinji's friend and sparring partner.  
"Wow, Shinji's got one helluva bod," Misato said with a smirk as she and everyone else watched Shinji approach the ring.  
Much like most of the people there, this was the first time she was seeing him without a shirt ever since he started working out.  
"Damn, Misato, you're such a pervert," Akane commented.  
Misato grinned, unbothered by the comment.  
"So, you and Shinji are sparring partners, huh?" Sumi asked Oki as he sat next to her.  
"Y-yes," Oki opened his mouth to say something to her, but his words came out forced. Much like how Shinji was back then, Oki wasn't good at trying to talk to girls. It also didn't help him any when he was very well aware that he was the only guy sitting among a group of over a dozen females.  
"You did really well on your fight back there," she said warmly, "Even though tonight's fight was also your debut match, you fought like you've been doing this for years,"  
"T-thanks," Oki said, truly touched by the comment.  
At that moment, Shinji emerged in to the arena from a pair of double door, accompanied with Ryoga and Ippo and Ranma.  
Priss turned toward Sumi, "So, how do you think Shinji'll do?"  
She smirked when she noticed Sumi's gaze seemingly transfixed on Shinji's naked upper half. This was understandable because, even though she and Shinji were seeing each other, she had never seen him shirtless before.  
Sumi knew Shinji was in very good shape but never realized that he was in that good of shape. His body was extremely lean yet muscular.  
"You're staring at him as if you're trying to burn a hole through him," Priss smirked. Sumi blushed, "Um, sorry. It's just that I didn't realize Shinji was that fit. He looks great,"  
Oki couldn't help feel envious of Shinji.

Shinji demolished his opponent, Kenjo Manichi.  
His opponent didn't stand a chance. The fight had been completely one-sided, his opponent landing not a single punch, knocked out after being hit three times, a quick combination of two jabs and a finishing straight punch from Shinji, all three of them landing.  
Shinji had thrown a total of five punches in that entire match. Shinji's first two punches had broken through his opponent's guard and hit him. However, the guard had managed to dissipate enough of Shinji's fist's incoming force to make it, although damaging, not damaging enough to cause a knockout.  
Shinji beat him within the first forty seconds of the first round, this included the ten-count that lead to his first victory. He felt a create sense of relief when he found his arm raised by the referee in victory. However, he was surprised when only heard a few cheers from random people in the audience.  
They audience is only cheering for me out of courtesy, Shinji thought to himself. They don't know who I am and probably don't even remember my name. I'm just some no body in the boxing world at the moment and need to make myself known. I need to win more times before people start noticing me.  
Shinji smiled when he glanced over and saw his friends all seated together. They cheered the loudest, even as he walked off the ring and headed off in to his dressing room.  
He felt great.  
The adult females gathered up in Ritsuko's apartment late that evening. They all knew why they were there, to talk about the test Ritsuko had conducted on Shinji's blood. They were all aware that she had been running tests on it ever since Luna managed to get a small sample of it a week ago. "So, what's the outcome?" Akane asked, "When you called, it sounded urgent,"  
"It is," Ritsuko answered, "I determined the results of Shinji's blood. I would've found out a little earlier but, as you can tell, I took some time off from the research to watch Shinji's debut match,"  
"What's the results?" Misato asked, somewhat nervous.  
"Depends on how you view it," Ritsuko answered, "From my point of view, I definitely consider it something very very unusual. Also, it seems give a perfectly good reason as to why Ranma would had requested Nene delete his medical records,"  
"You guys might want to sit down for when you hear this," Ritsuko suggested, "Because this is some very shocking news. I'm still having problems believing the results I have found,"  
Everyone did as they were told, sitting down on the nearby couches and chairs.  
Ritsuko said, "It's been determined that Shinji's blood isn't even of human origin,"  
"What?" everyone's eyes widened.  
"This explains why Ranma wanted that medical record removed," Ritsuko said, "From what I believe, this is what happened. Shinji gave blood at that on-campus blood drive a few weeks ago. Since all donated blood is checked out to make sure that there is nothing wrong with it so it could be used as donated blood, the medical center that checked out the blood had came to the exact same results as the one I can come to, that Shinji's blood is not of human origin. I think Shinji doesn't know this so, of course, he put in his real information when he donated blood. When they found this out about the blood, they would most likely want to contact them. Finding something out about someone will basically make Shinji's life very complicated since people would definitely want to find out more about Shinji. I think Ranma requested his medical record removed to basically keep Shinji's life from getting complicated. In the process, information about the results of his blood tests was most likely also deleted,"  
"That could explain why Ranma wanted me to remove the record from, basically, the database of database for medical records," Nene said.  
"That's right," Ritsuko nodded, "If his information is removed in the main database, the information basically trickles down so no other medical database with have Shinji's information,"  
"How did this happen?" Akane asked, "What, was he abducted by aliens or something and had his blood replaced and doesn't know it? That's just incomprehensible,"  
Ritsuko smirked, "I don't think it's that. However, since Shinji and Ranma are constantly with one another, there's a good chance that Ranma's characteristic is rubbing off on Shinji,"  
"You mean-" all the girls didn't dare to speculate.  
"Shinji's an Angel," Ritsuko said, "It helps explain away another question we've had,"  
"You mean on how Shinji's getting so powerful so quickly?" Akane asked first.  
Ritsuko nodded, "Yes. He's not getting powerful because of his training. He's becoming powerful not because of the training he's undergoing, but because of the characteristic he seems to be assuming, that of an Angel. From what it seems, Shinji's an Angel but his characteristic to be an Angel hasn't started surfacing yet,"  
"You mean before long, Shinji's going to have an AT Field?" Misato asked.  
"Yes,"

Shinji stretched as he woke up early.  
Checking the clock, he noticed it was only around eight in the morning, rather early for him for a Sunday. Hm, I wonder if I woke up early because I knew that Emiko and I were going to be hanging out today, he though. Huh? Why the hell am I thinking that way?  
Shinji banished the thought and got dressed, heading downstairs where he took a nice long shower.  
"Morning," Emiko gave a warm smile.  
"Morning," Shinji returned an equally warm smile.  
"Um, w-when would you like to go to the bookstore today?" she asked, hoping that it was good way of reminding him the plans they had for today.  
Shinji said, "Any time you want. However, I haven't eaten yet so I guess we can go after I eat something,"  
Emiko nervously asked, "Um, how about breakfast?"  
"Huh?"  
"I mean breakfast," she said, "Y'know, go to breakfast,"  
"Oh, what, you want to go out for breakfast?" he asked. It hadn't crossed his mind until Emiko mentioned it.  
"Um, it'd be nice if we did," she said.  
Shinji said, "Okay. We can go now if you want. Just let me go up and get some money from my room,"  
Emiko watched as Shinji head off and disappear around the corner. After she knew he was gone, she quickly rushed toward the kitchen. There, she found Akane as she and Luna having what looked like coffee and chatting.  
"Um, Akane," Emiko asked.  
"Yes?" Akane smirked. She and Luna had overheard Emiko's and Shinji's conversation.  
"C-can I have some money?" Emiko asked, a bit embarrassed. Even though she knew Shinji would most likely pay for the meal, she knew it would be wrong of her to assume so so it was best to have money just in case.  
Akane smiled warmly as she reached in to her pocket and took out some money.  
"Y'know," Akane smirked, handing Emiko the money, "It helps to know you have money first before asking to go out and eat with someone instead of asking to go out and eat and then trying to get the money after they accept, "  
Emiko blushed.  
She had so much to learn.  
Emiko was having fun.  
Sure, she and Shinji weren't doing all that much besides loitering in a bookstore, but it was fun nonetheless. They were both by the magazine rack, checking out the magazine the store had to offer.  
Breakfast went about without incident. They enjoyed a nice quiet breakfast meal at a local non-descript diner. Since Shinji didn't really have to worry about dieting again until the announcement of his next upcoming match. Then, he would still have time to eat normally until a few weeks before the match itself.  
After breakfast, the two of them went to the bookstore Shinji constantly frequented.  
"What's this?" Emiko asked, pulling out a random magazine.  
Shinji glanced over and noticed what kind of magazine it was. The image of a woman wearing barely anything and posing in a lewd position gave the magazine's contents away.  
"Um," Shinji tried to say.  
Emiko opened the magazine to a random page. When she did, her eyes widened when she saw the picture of a naked girl spreading her legs.  
"Oh my god!" she gasped, dropping the magazine. When the magazine fell down open.  
Shinji looked down where he saw the picture of what Emiko most likely saw. He blushed a hue of red and turned his attention away, not wanting to be caught staring.  
"There are magazines like that on this world?" Emiko gasped, pointing toward he magazine as if it were a bug, cringing back.  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "Um, yeah,"  
"This world is sick," she said.  
Shinji burst out laughing, a hearty laugh. He found this genuinely amusing and couldn't help but laugh. He forgot how Emiko's world was very much different from this world.  
Bending down and picking the magazine up, making sure to close it as he did so, Shinji placed the magazine back on the rack.  
He then went about scanning through the random magazines, figuring it's best to leave Emiko alone for a bit to compose herself.  
"Hey, Shinji," came a soft voice.  
Shinji looked over and was surprised to see Melinda. He hadn't seen her when he came in so she must have just gotten in there. "Hey, Melinda," he smiled, "What's up?" She regarded him for a moment, as if assessing him. She noticed he had nice broad shoulders and his well defined forearms gave off an indication of a really good build.  
Melinda's scrutinizing gazed made Shinji become very self-conscious of himself.  
"W-what?"  
"I was just checking out your body," she said truthfully.  
"I-I noticed," he said nervously, "You're supposed to do that discreetly,"  
Melinda blushed as she suddenly realized what she was doing.  
"Oh, no, don't misunderstanding," she said, "I was just checking you out,"  
"Obviously," he said.  
"Wait, it came out wrong," she blushed, "It's just that, looking at you, you seem like a very good candidate to fill in position for a male model that they need filled,"  
"Huh?"  
"There's a modeling shoot about week from now, Friday night actually," she said, "You seem cut for the job. It's only one day, it could actually jump-start you a career in modeling, and it pays really well,"  
"M-me? Modeling?" Shinji's eyes widened.  
"No offense, but you're not tall enough to be a regular model," Melinda said, "However, for the shoot at hand, height doesn't matter,"  
"Um, I dunno what to say," he said.  
"Well, the shoot is next week," she said, "I'm also going to be in the shoot as well. I figure I'd bring that to your attention,"  
"Um, thanks for your offer, but I don't think I'm cut out for it," he said.  
Melinda did a double-take. Shinji was declining the offer? Is this guy for real?  
"Besides, it's on Friday night, right? I'm busy on Friday nights," he said, referring to Friday dinner. However, it made him wonder if he was using that as an excuse. He was too self-conscious of himself to ever want to do something like that.  
"Um, okay," was all that Melinda could say.  
She watched as Shinji went about scanning through the magazines. The whole time when she was talking to him, she had been unaware that Emiko, a short distance away, had been eyeing them.  
Shinji's eyes widened, "Yes!"  
He picked up a boxing magazine, a big smile on his face.  
Shinji turned his attention over toward the girl that was nearby.  
"Look, a new boxing magazine's out," Shinji said happily to Emiko, "And check this out, there've even got an article on Ippo,"  
Emiko seemed to eye Melinda for a bit before she turned her attention on to the magazine for a minute before turning it on to Shinji.  
"Yeah, you're right," Emiko said, dismissing whoever that gorgeous woman was and why she had been talking to Shinji, "Ippo mentioned that the other day, remember? They had asked for his permission to do the article about him awhile ago,"  
Shinji suddenly realized something, "Oh, I forgot something,"  
"What?" she asked.  
Shinji took Emiko's hands in his and walked off toward the other end of the magazine rack, where Melinda was.  
Emiko blushed as she realized the two of them were holding hands, even if it was most likely accidental.  
"Melinda, this is Emiko," Shinji said, "Emiko, this is Melinda. She was the one that let me borrow the cello that you see me play,"  
Emiko eyed Melinda for a moment before she finally gave a forced smile, "How're you doing?"  
"Um, hi," Melinda said.  
Emiko felt a bit angry at the world. Perhaps not the world but she was at least angry at Melinda.  
She had been having such a fun time with Shinji at the bookstore until Melinda showed up. Not wanting to stay around, Emiko suggested the two of them leave the bookstore only after around fifteen minutes or so after arriving there together to do something else.  
"What do you want to do now?" Shinji asked, wondering why she seemed upset. He had a funny feeling that it most likely had to do something with him talking to Melinda but he wasn't positive. Was she jealous? Why the heck would she feel jealous? "How about the amusement park?" was the first thought that popped in to her head.  
Shinji said, "The amusement park? I guess so. I don't see a problem with that,"  
Together, the two of them headed off to the amusement park, indulging in conversation the whole wa alere. However, much to Shinji's pleasant surprise and Emiko's annoyance, they ended up bumping in to Sumi while she was wandering around town with her housemate, Meito.  
They were heading toward the mall and were walking down the street together when Shinji spotted them.  
"Hey, look," Shinji said to Emiko, gesturing, "It's Sumi. That's her housemate with her, Meito,"  
"Sumi, Meito," Shinji called out to them, waving his hands.  
Sumi and Meito looked about after hearing their name. It only took them a short while before they caught sight of Shinji. However, they also spotted Emiko standing next to him.  
"Who's that girl with him?" Meito asked Sumi.  
Sumi was silent for a moment before she said, "That's Emiko,"  
"That's Emiko? That's the girl you told me about?" Meito asked.  
Sumi nodded silently.  
Meito regarded the young girl named Emiko for a moment from across the street. She had to admit, Emiko was very pretty like Sumi had described. However, from the way they stood next to each other, not holding hands or anything, it gave off an indication that perhaps Sumi didn't have anything to worry about, that Shinji and Emiko were indeed friends.  
"C'mon, let's go say hi," Shinji said, gesturing for Emiko to follow him.  
"Um, o-okay," she said reluctantly.  
The two of them crossed the street where they met up with the two girls. They all greeted each other, Shinji introducing Emiko to Meito and Sumi introducing Meito to Sumi.  
"Where were you two headed?" Shinji asked.  
"What about you?" Meito asked instead.  
"Oh, Emiko and I were headed for the amusement park," Shinji answered, "How about you?"  
"Wow, we were headed there too," Meito said.  
Sumi cast Meito a weird look. They were not headed for the amusement park. They were headed toward the mall. Why was Meito saying otherwise? However, after a moment, she realized why. Meito was hoping that the two of them go with them, as a way of keeping tabs on Shinji and Emiko.  
Shinji scratched his head, "The amusement park? Again? We all went there not too long ago,"  
Emiko looked toward Shinji. Shinji and Sumi and Meito went to the amusement park before? When? And how come Shinji never told her anything about it? She thought they were good friends and shared everything. Wait, what was she to think that. There was stuff she kept from Shinji so she wasn't any better.  
"Well, you wanna join us?" he asked. He wondered if that was a good idea. If they said yes, then it would be him with three girls.  
"Sure," Meito said.

Shinji felt very self-conscious of himself as he walked down the street, accompanied with three pretty females. He was nervous at the thought that he might say something that might offend females in general.  
When he saw Ranma, he felt a great sense of relief. Since Ranma was usually free to do whatever that suited his leisure, perhaps he might want to join them, to help balance the gender of the group. Ranma had been walking down the street, a backpack slung over his back. "Ranma," Shinji called out to him.  
"Yo," Ranma said, approaching the group.  
Everyone greeted one another, Shinji introducing him to Meito and vice versa. Meito smiled warmly at him, liking what she was seeing.  
Ranma seemed oblivious to Meito's staring.  
Shinji noticed that Ranma was wearing a backpack, "Isn't that Ryoga's backpack?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yep,"  
"Isn't it incredibly heavy?" Shinji asked.  
"Yep," Ranma shrugged.  
"Why do you have his backpack?" Shinji asked.  
"I was bored," Ranma smirked, "Anyway, what are you guys up to?"  
"We were headed toward the amusement park," Shinji answered, "How about you?"  
Ranma glanced toward Sumi and then over at Emiko. He noted that whatever situation Shinji seemed to have gotten himself in to, it was most likely become a complicated one. As to whether or not he should intervene, Ranma hadn't quite decided yet.  
"I wasn't doing anything in particular," Ranma said, "Ya want me to come along with you?"  
"I don't see why not," Shinji said.  
Emiko said nothing. Now Ranma was coming along.  
All she wanted to do was spend a nice day with Shinji alone.

Emiko felt more and more depressed as the group headed toward the amusement park together. This was because Shinji seemed to be spending more and more time with Sumi. It wasn't as if he was doing it on purpose. Ranma was busy talking to Meito. Actually, it was Meito talking to Ranma and Ranma just listening and nodding on occasions. Sumi and Shinji talked to each other most of the time. This left Emiko with no one to really talk to, a fifth wheel.  
She watched as Shinji seemed to pay more and more attention to Sumi. "Um, what rides would you like to go on?" Emiko tried to ask, only to find Shinji not even paying attention to her until she repeated herself.  
"What was that you ask?" Shinji asked.  
"What ride would you like to go on? That is, when we get to the park," she asked.  
Shinji thought about it for a moment, "I dunno. I figure we can decide when we get there. What would you like to go on?"  
"The Ferris wheel," was the first ride that popped in to Emiko's mind, "I wouldn't mind seeing how the city looks from the top,"  
Shinji scratched his head, "But why from the top of the Ferris wheel? We can probably get a better view from one of the rooftops of a tall building,"  
"That's not the point," Emiko said. However, she didn't bother to say why she would prefer seeing the entire city from the top of a Ferris wheel instead of a tall building because it was romantic.  
"Then what's the point?" he asked.  
"Nevermind,"

Emiko flopped on her bed that evening when they got back. She had been eager to spending the entire day alone with Shinji but it turned out as a bust. The only time she had spent alone with Shinji was for breakfast and during their walk home after dropping Sumi and Meito off at their place, Ranma having gone off on his own immediately afterwards.  
"Damn, if Sumi wasn't around, being on the Fer#͵^wheel would've been the ideal time to tell him," she said to herself with a sigh.  
"Ideal time for what?" Shinji asked as he entered the room. "N-n-nothing," she found herself at a loss of words.

"What's this about?" Ranma asked as he entered Ritsuko's apartment and found all the adult females gathered about. He had come with Akane and Luna after they had asked him to go with him to meet up with everyone.  
Everyone sat down in nearby chairs and couches while Ranma remained standing, basically at the center of attention.  
"Is there anything you would like to talk to us about Shinji?" Ritsuko asked, wanting to give Ranma the opportunity to come clean and give his side of the story about what was going on.  
Ranma shook his head, "Nope. Why do you ask?"  
"This has to do with the request you asked of Nene," Ritsuko said, "About the deletion of his medical records,"  
Ranma narrowed his eyes, "Oh?"  
"We've found out the significance of why you wanted that done," Ritsuko said, "We've found out what you were trying to hide,"  
"And what do you think I'm trying to hide?" he asked.  
"That Shinji's an Angel," Ritsuko said.  
The room was silent as they eagerly awaited Ranma's response. Funnily enough, Ranma's reaction was completely unexpected.  
He burst out laughing, falling down to the floor, "You guys think Shinji's an Angel? Let's just say you guys are so wrong that the person that defined that word for the dictionary is laughing at you right now,"  
"What?" everyone was surprised.  
Ranma smirked, "Sorry guys, but you're wrong in assuming Shinji's an Angel,"  
"Then why don't you tell us what's going on?" Misato asked, "I think we deserve an explanation,"  
Ranma shook his head.  
"Unfortunately, I'm not going to tell you," Ranma said.  
"Why not?" everyone asked in unison.  
"Because, your knowing of what's going on's going to make an already complicated situation even more complicated," he stated.  
"What's to stop us from going to Shinji about this finding?" Misato asked, "Don't you think Shinji deserves to know?"  
"Don't even think about it," Ranma said in a loud voice.

new stuff 11/11

"There's many questions we've got," Ritsuko said.  
"All of which I won't answer if it pertains to either me, Shinji, or what I've been doing all this time," Ranma said.  
"Why won't you tell us?" the asked.  
"Because knowing too much is a very bad thing," Ranma said.

Ranma approached Ryoga late at night.  
Ryoga had been sleeping in his tent when he was rudely woken up with a swift kick to the face.  
"What the hell's wrong with you?" Ryoga sneered, waking up right away.  
He climbed out of the tent and stood face-to-face with Ranma.  
"I've got some important news for you," Ranma said.  
Ryoga narrowed his eyes at Ranma and asked, "What news?"  
"Follow me," Ranma gestured for Ryoga to follow.  
Ryoga followed Ranma to the garage situated next to the dojo. He watched as Ranma opened up the garage door and followed him in.  
"Didja know that Shinji can open the garage door?" Ranma commented purely for conversational purposes.  
Ryoga's eye widened, "By himself?"  
"Yeah," Ranma said.  
"You're kidding me, right?" Ryoga asked, wondering if Ranma was just toying with him. When he noticed Ranma seem to indicate otherwise, he asked, "Just how strong has Shinji gotten? The door weighs a lot,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Shinji's getting really strong but he doesn't even realize it. In a sense, it's kinda like you and me. We're really strong but there's no real way to gauge our strength since whatever we're standing out would give out long before our strength does,"  
Ryoga shrugged, "Okay,"  
"Anyway, that's besides the point," Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "I wanna show you something I've been working on,"  
Ryoga noticed the station wagon in the garage, "What the hell is this?"  
"It's a car," Ranma smirked, "I know you're stupid, but surely, you can't be that stupid,"  
Ryoga sneered, "I really don't like you, Ranma. Y'know that, right?"  
"Yeah yeah," Ranma shrugged, "Anyway, this station wagon isn't all that important. What's important is this,"  
Ranma hit a small switch that turned out a small light bulb in the garage. He then walked over to the back right side of the garage and picked something up. "I'm really glad you're here," Ranma said, "I need you around here for the time being. Anyway, if you didn't show up around now, I would've gone out looking for you,"  
"Good luck," Ryoga smirked, "If I didn't come home, I would've been on a different world,"  
"Don't worry, I would find you," Ranma shrugged without much thought.  
Ryoga paused for a moment. Ranma would not have been able to find him since he was the only one with the nanban mirror. The other nanban mirror disappeared long ago. It was the mirror that Ranma had used back then to go to that world to cause Third Impact and become God.  
Ryoga regarded the object Ranma had in his hand. It looked like some kind of home-made Lance of Longinus. However, it was very evident that it wasn't the Lance of Longinus since it no longer existed.  
"What the hell is that?" Ryoga asked.  
Ranma grinned, "I made it myself. It's a weapon. I made it myself,"  
"A weapon? What for?" Ryoga asked.  
"It's a present for Shinji," Ranma grinned, "Here, check out how heavy it is,"  
Ryoga took hold of the weapon. He was surprised that it was incredibly heavy.  
"Goddamn, this thing's heavy!" Ryoga said, "It weighs more than my backpack,"  
"I know," Ranma chuckled.  
Ryoga paused for a moment. Something wasn't right here. Ranma held the weapon like it weighed nothing. However, when Ryoga had tried it, he had trouble holding it. Ryoga was stronger than Ranma, right?  
"The weapons is crazy heavy," Ranma said, "However, it's too heavy for Shinji to hold, at least for now, until he gets strong enough to carry it,"  
"Um, what are you getting at?" Ryoga asked, "I'd hate to burst your bubble, but Shinji's never going to be able to lift something this heavy,"  
"You're right, not at the moment," Ranma nodded, "That's what the station wagon's for. He can use this to transport it to where ever he needs to go,"  
"I don't understand the meaning of this," Ryoga said, "Why are you showing me all of this?"  
"Because, there's very little time left and I need desperately need your help..."

Akane regarded Shinji for a moment as he went about doing his morning routine before going to school. She was in the kitchen where Shinji was as he went about eating a piece of toast and drinking from his glass of milk.  
"You've got a minute?" Akane asked.  
"Sure," he said, "What's up?"  
Akane sat down on the chair next to him, "How have you been doing?"  
"I'm fine," he replied without thought.  
"Um, so tell me, how's your training coming along?" she asked, "I mean with Ranma that is,"  
"It's fine," he replied, "Couldn't be better. However, I'm wondering if Ranma's ever going to show me how ki works. I wouldn't mind learning how to shoot a ki-blast and all,"  
Akane was silent for a moment. She felt bad for Shinji and didn't have the heart to tell him. She remembered Ranma's comment that Shinji's body had a unique ability of absorbing ki but not gathering it. That meant Shinji would be unable to produce ki-blast correctly, like the way Ranma and Ryoga could.  
"I'm sure you'll learn it soon enough or something similar," Akane commented.  
"I guess," he said.  
Akane decided it was best to change the subject, "So, how are you and Sumi getting along?"  
"Fine," he said, "We spent a good portion of our day together yesterday,"  
"Strange, I thought it was supposed to only be you and Emiko,"  
Shinji said, "Yeah. She was there as well. However, we met Sumi and her housemate, Meito, along the way. We all went to the amusement park together,"  
Akane said, "You like Sumi, don't you?"  
Shinji blushed, "Yeah. I do,"  
"Have you told her about your past? If you plan on having a relationship with her, don't you think 0 # should come clean with her and explain about your past?"  
Shinji was silent.

"There's something I'd like to tell you," said to Sumi.  
"What is it?" Sumi asked.  
Shinji and Sumi were both standing in front of 'D-Cluster'. It was perfect time for him and Sumi to talk because their last class for the day had been cancelled, leaving with them with a good hour of free time before Shinji was expected at the gym.  
"There's some stuff about me you're not going to like hearing," he said.  
Sumi gulped. She knew exactly what Shinji planned on talking about. She was pretty sure he was going to start talking about his past, something he had always avoided until now. It worried her what she might hear, but it also made her happy that Shinji was finally going to tell her about a side of himself that she knew very little about.  
"Actually, from the way it probably sounds," he said, "It'll probably seem like I'm nuts or something,"  
"I would never think of something like that," Sumi said truthfully. Shinji looked very reluctant to talk, as if he was going to back off all of a sudden.  
"Please, tell me," she said, "I promise I won't judge you,"  
Shinji too several deep breaths before he would begin to speak.  
"I'm not from this world," he said, "I'm from an alternate world. In my world I pilot these things called Evangelions, these biomechanical machines that were purposely engineered to fight off Angels..."  
Shinji went about telling her basically everything about his past while she listened with undivided attention. He went on to explain how he met Ranma and Ryoga and soon move to this world afterwards. Although he had been ashamed, he also told her about how he had killed his father after he found out the deal behind Nerv. He told her about how he took part in the 'Angel Wars' and that he and Ranma and basically everyone that she met at Friday dinner took part in their unsung battle against the Angels that attacked this world. He finished the last leg of his story talking about his adventure in helping out a God-version of Ranma and meeting Urd, the current God that they have. Before long, Shinji finished telling his side of the story and was expected to be at the gym.  
"That's basically my story in a nutshell," he said, "I know it's a lot to take in, but that's my past,"  
Shinji looked at his watch and noticed the time, "Oh man, I should get over to the gym. I should've been heading over there five minutes ago. I'll talk to you tomorrow or perhaps call you tonight to hear about what you think about what I said,"  
"Um, o-okay," was all she could muster.

Sumi arrived back at her dorm at shortly after noon, having headed straight home after she and Shinji parted.  
She leaned her back against her door. She stood in that position for several minutes, deep in thought, seemingly in a state of shock, still trying to comprehend what Shinji had said.  
After a while, she slid down in to a seated position.  
She promptly started to sob, her tears flowing freely.  
She had found herself truly deeply falling for Shinji, especially after having such a fun time with him on Saturday just doing something simply like playing musical instruments together.  
However, after hearing what Shinji had to say, she came to realize something.  
Shinji was crazy.

"Um, Shinji," "Hm?" Shinji turned toward Emiko.  
The two of them were stretching. Since Shinji had had his match, his training routine was back to the way it was so they would be going about jogging. Emiko wanted today to be the day. She had been wanting to tell him of her feelings yesterday had Sumi not been there. However, today, Sumi wasn't around. She had waited far too long to tell him. She had been meaning to tell him for way too long and hadn't been able to muster the courage or confidence to tell him. However, she had come to the realization that she would never get that courage or confidence to tell him.  
She figured it was best to just jump in the deep end of the pool and pray that she learned to swim.  
"I was wondering, um," she began, "H-how are you and Sumi getting along?"  
Shinji said, "I told her about my past," "Y-you have?" Emiko was surprised.  
"Yeah," he said, "I've kept my past from her because I was embarrassed about telling her. However, I think I've waited too long to tell her. I'm hoping our relationship progresses so I think she deserves to know about my past,"  
Emiko was silent.  
"Y'know what's strange?" he commented, "I think I'm in love with her,"  
Tears suddenly started to flow from Emiko's eyes. This confused the heck out of Shinji.  
"A-are you okay?" he asked, sincere concern in his voice.  
That made it hurt even more, that his concern was genuine.  
Not knowing what to do, she wanted to get away as fast as possible, so she could be alone to compose herself and collect her thoughts.  
Tears still flowing, Emiko ran out of the gym.

Emiko sobbed as she ran toward nowhere in particular.  
Her heart was broken. There was no better way of describing it. There was a sadness within her that felt so painful that it felt as if it were a physical pain.  
She knew it had all been her fault. She had waited too long. Had she told him of her feelings earlier, perhaps there could have been a chance for her. However, she was a coward and lost out. Now she was paying the consequences.  
"Emiko," came a voice which startled her. She yelped in surprise when she felt a hand grabbed on to one of her arms, preventing her from getting away.  
She looked behind her where she was shocked to see Shinji. How the heck did Shinji manage to catch up with her. She was in a full sprint when she left the gym and Shinji wasn't supposed to be able to keep up with her even if she ran at half her top speed.  
"I took the rooftops," he said, seemingly reading her mind.  
She said nothing. She was busy trying to wipe away and hide her evident sadness from Shinji's gaze. Unfortunately, it was futile because the tears continued to flow freely and she had no idea how to make them stop.  
"Please, tell me, what's wrong?" he said, truly confused on what was bothering her. It also tore away at him that something was bothering her and she wouldn't tell him. Weren't they good enough friends that she shouldn't feel uncomfortable about saying anything to him?  
She said nothing.  
"Was it something I did?" he asked. He had no idea what in the world he could have done that made her so sad, but if he knew what it was, then he would do the best to his abilities to fix it.  
"I-it's unimportant," she tried to say, not wanting to bother Shinji with trivial matters like her feelings toward him. If he knew, then it would just complicate things and she didn't want to make things complicated for Shinji, even if it meant her being hurt. She cared that much for him.  
"You were perfectly fine until I mentioned Sumi," Shinji said, trying to narrow things down, "Does it have something to do with me and Sumi?"  
Emiko was silent. When the heck did Shinji get that observant? She thought only Ranma and Luna were the only ones that were that observant.  
"Am I right?" he asked.  
She remained silent. "What does this have to do with her?" he asked. It couldn't be the case that Sumi and Emiko didn't get together because they seemed fine when they were together at Friday dinner and the amusement park yesterday.  
"Are you angry at her or something?" he asked, hoping to see some form of reaction to his questions.  
Emiko wondered if she was angry at Sumi. No, she wasn't. She was more along the lines of angry at herself. There was no reason to be angry at Sumi since it wasn't her fault that Emiko lost her chance by waiting too long to tell Shinji of her feelings.  
"C'mon, we're best friends," he said without thought, "You can tell me anything,"  
He paused for a moment. When did they become best friends? He figured he and Ranma were best friends. However, he didn't bother to dwell over it. If Shinji considered Emiko a closer friend than Ranma, then so be it.  
"What's got you so upset?" he asked again.  
"I-it's b-because you and Sumi are together," she said, wondering if it was her own voice she was hearing. "Why?" he asked.  
Before she even realized what she was saying, the words just came out.  
"B-because I'm in love with you,"  
There was a long, deep, awkward silence as Shinji seemed to take in what he just heard. He could have sword he heard Emiko just said that she loved him. However, he had a funny feeling his ears were playing tricks on him. Why the heck would Emiko be in love with him? She only saw him as a friend, right? Right?  
"Um, did I hear you correctly? D-did you just say you're in love with me?" he asked, wanting to make sure. His heart was beating rapidly for some odd reason.  
Emiko's blush said it all. She didn't have to say anything.  
Shinji and Emiko stood where they were in silence.  
Emiko cast him a glance, extremely embarrassed with herself. She had never intended to say the words. Saying so had just complicated matters greatly.  
As if her heart wasn't breaking enough, Shinji's response shattered it.  
"I'm sorry, b-but I see you as a friend..."

Shinji was on his way towards Sumi's dorm apartment. It was only around one in the afternoon, Shinji having forgone training for the day. He had spoken with Emiko for a while and explained to her that, as flattering as it was that she was in love with him, he viewed her as a friend.  
After having explained that to her, she seemed to have realized that. Although devastated, she felt that she could go on, that tomorrow was another day. They parted on good terms, Emiko saying she would go home and meet up with him later and that he should go talk to Sumi about what had happened, so complications wouldn't occur.  
"I feel like such an asshole," Shinji said to himself as he walked along.  
He really wished he could return those feelings. He honestly believed that Emiko was definitely the girl he would've fallen for had Sumi not been around.  
It made him wonder how his feelings for her would be now if she had told him that earlier.  
"I'm such an idiot," Shinji said to himself, "How the heck could I not see something so obvious as that?"  
He wondered why he had not seen something like that. He wondered what he could've been doing with her all this time that made her fall in love with him. He knew that she didn't love him before recently. He did nothing special with her. The only thing they did together on a regular basis was train.  
"Could that have been it?" he asked, "Could just us being together lead to something like that? How's that possible? We just hung out like we always did. You can't fall in love with someone if you do the same thing with that same person all the time, right? Right? Heck, if I hafta do something with someone all the time, I'd probably get sick of doing that thing with them,"  
Shinji stopped dead in his tracks as he realized something about that last comment he made.  
"Wait, never have I gotten tired of going to the gym with Emiko," he said, "As a matter of fact, it made me look forward to going with her. But if that's the case, then wouldn't I've fallen for her as well?"  
Shinji got down in to a squatting position in the middle of the sidewalk, scratching at his head as if trying to pull his hair out, "What the hell's wrong with me?"  
Several people stopped and looked at him, wondering if he was some kind of crazy person.  
Shinji blushed when he looked around and noticed people looking at him oddly.  
He quickly stood back up and headed down the street.  
"It would most likely be easier if I was in love with Emiko," he sighed.  
Shinji looked up at the sky and noticed that it was getting dark out.  
"Great, something bad's gonna happen," he muttered. At least that was something Ranma usually suspected, that the skies getting cloudy usually meant that, like it was some form of foreshadowing used in movies and books and such.  
He dismissed the thought and continued on toward Sumi's place.

"S-Shinji, what are you doing here?" Sumi was surprised, "I thought you would be at the gym now training,"  
She couldn't help but feel this sense of nervousness. Shinji was obviously crazy but he seemed to give no indication of it.  
Shinji gave a slight smile, "Well, I was supposed to but there was a change in plans,"  
"What change?"  
Shinji blushed, "Emiko told me she was in love with me,"  
Sumi became silent. So her suspicion was right, that Emiko was in love with him. She wasn't all that surprised. Shinji really was a great guy and it wasn't all that surprising that Emiko would've fallen for him considering how much time they spend together. They train together for God's sake.  
"W-what did you say to her?" she asked.  
"I told her the truth, that I only see her as a friend,"  
Shinji felt like his life was falling apart right before his eyes. He didn't know what the heck was wrong with him.  
Sumi accepted him. She accepted his past. Sure, she was very skeptic about what he had said but she chose to take it as a given. Perhaps this was because that even if Shinji did seem crazy, Sumi everyone had their quirks. Besides, even if Shinji was crazy, she wasn't that shallow that she would dump him because of something like that. For all she knew, maybe it was a test, to see if she really was shallow, which she definitely wasn't. As they talked, Shinji felt something within him that made him want to check up on Emiko, to make sure she was okay and fine with things. He wanted to stay with Sumi but he also wanted to check up on Emiko back at home. Oddly enough, between the two, he choose Emiko. "I'm sorry," Shinji said, "But I think I should go. It's really bothering me how sad Emiko was. I'm going to go and check up with her,"  
She was well aware that it was a statement and not a question to her to see if it was all right with her that he go.  
Sumi was silent for a moment, "Um, okay,"  
Shinji was very confused about everything as he continued on his way.  
It also didn't help that it was pouring as he proceeded home.  
Arriving home, a soaking wet Shinji looked about the house for Emiko.  
"Emiko, you around?" he called out.  
He looked around and noticed that no one was around in the livingroom. He found this strange because its was rather bad out and no one would like to be out in weather like this.  
Glancing out the window, he noticed that it looked like night out. It was only early in the afternoon, but it looked like nighttime out, the sun blocked off by the dark clouds looming in the sky.  
Shinji entered his room and found it empty. He was hoping to find her in there but was disappointed when he found nothing.  
Something deep down inside made him suddenly become concerned about something. He didn't know why, but there was this great feeling of dread he felt envelopment. Something was not right about this room.  
All he found was a letter that was addressed to him resting on the table.  
Taking a quick glance at it, he realized it was Emiko's. She had rather poor penmanship, much like himself.  
Shinji's heart skipped a beat as he picked up the letter.  
Opening the letter, he read it. It only had a few lines.  
'I'm sorry, Shinji. It hurts too much to stay here. I went back to my own world. Goodbye forever. Emiko'  
"N-no. No. No. No. No," tears suddenly started forming around his eyes. Emiko was gone.  
"Is something the matter?" came a voice that startled Shinji.  
Shinji quickly turned around to face the voice.  
It was Luna. She was the only one home at the moment, Ranma, Akane, and Ryoga, having taken Lina, Rei, and Asuka to the mall. They would most likely be home soon. "Luna, Emiko's gone! She went back to her own world!" he said, panic in his voice.  
"What?" her eyes widened, "When? How? I saw her get home not even an hour ago,"  
"I don't know. I think she left only a short while ago," he said, "I dunno how,"  
The blood drained from Luna's face as something suddenly clicked.  
"I know," she said, "She asked me about it shortly after she got home,"  
"How?" he asked.  
"She used Ryoga's nanban mirror,"

Luna entered the livingroom, carrying with her a backpack.  
Not knowing how long she would be gone and looking for Emiko on the other world, she figured she should bring a good amount of clothes. Shinji, physically stronger than her, had his own backpack,. He would be carrying the heavy equipment like the tent and sleeping bags and cooking utensils and such. He had even offered to carry all the weight but Luna couldn't let him do that. She wasn't that physically weak that she needed a man to burden all of the weight.  
Although she would rather wait for everyone to get back home to talk to them and come up with a course of action, the fact that Shinji found Emiko's dagger in his room indicated that she had gone back to her world without her weapon of choice. Shinji, nor Luna for that matter, liked the thought of Emiko wandering around on that world without a weapon.  
Emiko was a skilled fighter indeed, but she was still most skillful with a dagger and not with her bare-hands. That world was more dangerous than this world so an unarmed Emiko was an easy target.  
"I'm ready," Shinji said, finishing up with packing up his backpack.  
"Same here," Luna said, "I also wrote the letter telling them about Emiko's situation and about how we went there to get her back. I left it in the kitchen counter,"  
"Okay," he said, bringing the backpack up and throwing it over his shoulder.  
Luna was silent for a moment. She wondered if Shinji considered whatever the weight of the backpack was heavy. At this point in time, she had no real idea exactly how strong Shinji was.  
The talk Ranma had given her and everyone that night gave them an indication that only he knew Shinji's current strength, that not even Shinji knew it.  
"Let's get going," she said.  
She put on the backpack and closed her eyes. She said a few words that Shinji couldn't understand that he considered nothing more than a magic incantation. Before he realized it, a magic blue portal suddenly appeared right in the middle of the livingroom.  
"That leads to yours and Emiko's world?" he asked.  
Luna nodded, a bit proud of herself.  
"Man, it's so cool that you can do this," Shinji commented, "I remember not too long ago, you couldn't open a portal to a different world and be able to walk through yourself,"  
Luna smiled, "I know. Hey, you and Ranma aren't the only people getting more powerful. Just like how you get better, so do I,"  
"I understand," he nodded, "I'm glad you're coming with me,"  
"Of course," she smiled, "If I didn't, then there would be no way of you to get back, provided the nanban mirror somehow gets destroyed while you're on that world,"  
"Yeah, you're right," he said gratefully.  
"Well, let's get going,"  
Ranma didn't like the look of the sky one bit at all.  
He and the others had arrived home somewhere around four in the afternoon. He was standing in the front porch as he looked up at the sky. Akane and the children and gone on in to the house.  
Ryoga was standing next to him, "Oh man, you're right, the sky is getting all dark like you had said,"  
Ranma sighed, "I know. I really wish it doesn't hafta come to this, but there's nothing that can be done,"  
"It's just a matter of time, huh?" Ryoga said, smirking.  
Ranma nodded, "Unfortunately, yes,"  
Akane called out both of their names.  
"Ranma, Ryoga, you guys better come in here," they heard her from the inside of the house.  
The two of them entered the house and went in to the kitchen. There, they found Akane and the others looking over a letter.  
"What's up?" Ranma asked.  
"We seem to have a problem," Akane said, holding forward the letter for them to take.  
Ranma took hold of the letter and started reading it.  
The letter went on to explain in detail about how Emiko seemed to have somehow used Ryoga's nanban mirror to head back home to her own world. "Why did she go back home?" Asuka asked. It wasn't that she really cared. "Because she is in love with Shinji and Shinji choosing Sumi over her is probably what led up to it," Rei said softly.  
Everyone was silent as they looked at Rei. Most surprised was Akane and Ranma. They had no idea that she knew about Emiko's feelings for Shinji. What was even more surprising was that that was the first thought that Ranma and Akane thought of that could have resulted in her leaving.  
"Emiko's in love with Stupid-Shinji? Get out of here!" Asuka laughed.  
Rei shrugged, unbothered if Asuka believed her or not.  
Ranma went about reading the letter. It mentioned about how Luna and Shinji had gone to that other world looking for her. Reading that made the blood drain from Ranma's face.  
This seriously upset Ranma.  
"Oh shit! Shinji's not here!" "You're kidding me, right?" Ryoga took the letter and began reading it. After a moment, his face drained of its color, "Oh no!"  
"What's going on here?" Akane asked, visibly upset at seeing Ranma and Ryoga upset.  
Ranma reluctantly looked up at Akane.  
"We're in deep deep shit!"

new stuff 11/12

"I never figured Emiko would do something like this," Luna said, "What do you expect? That she would be fine? That's highly unlikely. She's heartbroken,"  
Shinji and Luna were on a different world, Emiko's and Luna's and Lina's homeworld. It was only somewhere around three in the afternoon but it looked like it looked like night out. This was because the sky was almost pitch black from the clouds. It was also pouring out, the rain looking as if it would never stop.  
The two of them were inside of tent the Shinji had set up quickly shortly after their arrival on this world. They were in the middle of a clearing in a dense forest.  
They were looking for Emiko who could be anyway and it was useless to wander around aimlessly looking for her. They needed to come up with a plan.  
"Where do you think she could be?" Shinji asked, hoping Luna's was better at problem solving than himself.  
Luna thought for a moment, "Well, if I were Emiko, I'd most likely go to Anlinson Castle,"  
"Anlinson Castle?" he asked, "Y'mean the castle of the royal family she used to work for?"  
Luna smirked, "Yes. How did you know?"  
"Emiko told me," he said, "She said something about she used to be the hidden watch out for the princess of some royal family,"  
Luna said, "Wow, I'm surprised she told you this,"  
"Oh? How come?" Shinji scratched his head.  
"Because, she's the type of person that would tell no one about what she used to do," Luna said, "I only know about it because of Ranma. He told me. If I recall correctly, she has told no one about her past except for you,"  
Shinji was silent.  
"The fact that she told you must mean something," Luna said.  
"I'm so confused," he said, "I have no idea when she fell in love with me,"  
She shrugged, "Who knows. Sure, it wasn't some love at first sight kind of thing, but sometime along the lines, she fell for you,"  
Shinji sighed. How come he never noticed?  
"First off, I need to find out where we are," Luna said, getting up to her feet.  
"What are you going to do?" he asked.  
"I'm gonna fly a few hundred feet up in to the sky," she said, "I can check out the layout of the area and get a good idea of where we are. From here, we can determine which way to go to get to Anlinson Castle,"  
"Okay,"

Shinji was feeling very nervous. He and Luna were flying through the sky and the ground was a good hundred feet below him. Actually, Luna was flying. Shinji was flying right next to her, she having temporarily cast an indirect flying spell on him. So long as they held hands, he could fly.  
Neither of them were getting wet, some unseen sphere surrounding them and repelling the rain.  
"You're crushing my hand, Shinji," Luna said, smirking.  
"I-I c-can't help it," he said nervously, "T-this is f-freaking me out,"  
He loosened his grip slightly. However, it was still fairly tight.  
Luna laughed slightly. Shinji was doing a lot better than he knew. This was the first time he was ever flying and he seemed to be a lot less panicked than the average person. Shinji was very nervous and that was it. Most people, on the other hand, were usually so scared that they would definitely be unable to respond to her voice, too scared to think straight.  
Luna looked far ahead and couldn't help but feel something foreboding within her. In the far off horizon, she could see swarms of dragons flying about. It was very rare to see dragons flying about. Heck, people could live their entire lives and not even see a single dragon. However, there was probably something that have them spooked.  
Heh, it can't be because of my presence on this world, Luna thought with a smirk. Her sister spooked dragons. That was true. However, that was only if the dragons ever saw her. With Luna, her presence usually spooked dragons. However, she knew her presence wasn't that far-reaching that dragons that far away from her would be spooked.  
"Um, are those dragons I see in the horizon, right by those mountains?" Shinji asked nervously.  
"Yeah," she nodded, "I guess this is the first time you've ever seen dragons, huh?"  
"Yeah," he replied, "However, they're so far away they look like dots moving around in the sky. It's too bad the clouds are blocking the sun because I can't see them all that well,"  
Luna smirked. She figured it was best not to tell them that they would be flying right past the swarms of dragons right by the far-off mountains.  
"H-how far away are we from Anlinson Castle?" he asked, hoping to keep his mind occupied.  
"Fifteen days," Luna replied.  
"Fifteen days? How far is that?" he asked.  
"It's just that, fifteen days," Luna smirked, "It'll take us fifteen days to get there,"  
Shinji's eyes widened, "That's so far away!"  
"It's fifteen days by foot," Luna said, "Around twelve days by horse. However, for us, it'll be around two days. We'd actually get there faster, but since I have to basically tow you, we're moving a bit slower,"  
"Oh," Shinji said.  
"However, it'll take around three days for us to get there because I'm going to need to rest," Luna commented, "Summoning that portal took a lot out of me,"  
"Oh yeah. You usually need a week to recover after doing something like that, right? You want to stop now?" he asked.  
Luna shook her head, "No. I'm much better than I was back then. It doesn't tire me out nearly as much now as back then,"  
Shinji's eyes were wide, "You're telling me. It seems like it didn't effect you at all,"  
Luna smiled, "Like I said, you and Ranma aren't the only ones that are getting stronger,"  
"Could it be because something you did when you visited this world a few months ago?" he asked.  
Luna shook her head, "No. I just practice. That's all,"  
"You practice?" Shinji asked, using his free hand to scratch his head, "When the heck do you practice? I've never seen you throwing fireballs or anything, not a single time since you've gotten back,"  
"I practice it when I go jogging with Ranma," she said.  
"Oh," he said.  
"The sky looks really bad, huh?" Shinji commented.  
Luna nodded, "Yes. It's actually got me a bit nervous,"  
"Why?" he asked.  
"Because, something like this usually means something bad is about to happen," she said.  
Shinji couldn't help but chuckle a bit, "Y'know what, I thought the same thing,"

Shinji and Luna hovered in the air.  
"Wow," Shinji seemed in a state of nervous awe, "Even though they're so far away, they look amazing,"  
Luna shrugged, "If you've seen one, you've seen them all,"  
"They're amazing-looking," he commented, "I've only read about them in myths before. However, to know that they actually exist and to actually see not one, not even two, but a few dozen of them, that's incredible,"  
"What's odd is that the dragons aren't parting," she commented.  
"Huh?" Shinji asked.  
"They usually sense me coming and get out of my way," she commented, wondering if she sounded arrogant. She didn't mean it to sound like that, "Usually, the dragons sense my being nearby and generally run away,"  
"R-run away?" Shinji gave her a skeptic look. Luna scared dragons? No way.  
Luna smirked, "Much like how Priss is a superstar yet you only see her as a regular person. The same basically refers to your view of me. I'm actually really powerful, at least powerful enough that dragons even acknowledge my power,"  
Shinji gave a meek smile, "No. It's not that. I didn't say I didn't believe. What I found rather odd is that dragons are scared of you. Um, what's there about you that they're scared about? From what I see, you're a really nice person and such,"  
"Thanks," she smiled warmly.  
"Anyway, what's the significance of the dragon's not moving?" he asked.  
"Something's got them really spooked," she said, "However, there's nothing on this world that would spook dragon's like this. There are no god's that control dragons and such that suddenly became corrupted. Dragons are extremely powerful creatures and, in a sense, won't get spooked. The only possible thing that could possible spook them like this is if word got out that I was personally going after them, then that could be a good reason. However, since I have no intention of doing that, something's got to be spooking them,"  
Shinji gave Luna and odd look, "You're kidding me, right, that you can spook dragons like this if you wanted to?"  
Luna smirked, "I guess that's for me to know and you to find out,"  
"Man, did you know you're saying stuff similar to what Ranma would say?" Shinji smirked, "What's also funny is that you're probably as powerful as Ranma in your own right,"  
"Oh?"  
"Man, it's like you're the female equivalent of Ranma," he gave a meek smile, wondering if he should have said that.  
"Hm, I don't know if I should consider that a compliment or an insult,"  
Luna made a mistake. It was something extremely rare. However, she was human and humans made mistakes. Unfortunately, this was a mistake that would cost Shinji his life.  
Luna, curious as to what was spooking all the dragons, had wanted to go in close and communicated with it and ask it what was making it so spook. Unfortunately, she hadn't anticipated that the dragon she approached would have attacked them for no reason. A well-aimed blast of fire from the dragon's mouth had forced her to raise her hands up to conjure a barrier to deflect the fiery projectile right back at the dragon, the blast killing it on impact.  
Unfortunately, her doing so had resulted in her having let go of Shinji, Shinji plunging down toward the ground below and to his death.  
"Shinji!" she screamed, shooting downwards at a high rate of descent. Unfortunately, Shinji had too much of a head start in his free-fall for Luna to catch up. She would be too late.  
She saw the look of panic in Shinji's eyes as he gazed up and screamed her name as he fell.  
However, as she raced to make it up to him in time, she noticed what looked like a blanket of calm envelop him. She watched as he turned his attention downward toward the rushing ground. It looked as if his body suddenly took on a mind of its own. Before she knew it, Shinji fell the entire distance from where they had been hovering and hit the ground with thunderous force. The impact made her shudder as she forced herself to stop her own descent for fear of hitting the ground herself.  
However, what shocked her the most was that Shinji landed on the ground feet first. His feet touched the ground first, absorbing most of the impact. The ground caved downward slightly from the force behind the impact of Shinji's landing. Although his feet absorbed most of the force, Shinji ended up falling down in to a crouching position, on hand touching the ground.  
Luna hovered down to the ground, her gaze fixed on Shinji as he seemed to remain in that position for several minutes, unmoving.  
"S-Shinji?" she called out to him, concern in her voice, "A-are you okay?" Of course he wasn't okay! No person could walk away from hitting the ground from a fall that high.  
Shinji slowly going himself back up in to a standing position.  
A second later, he fell to the ground and on to his backside, grabbing at his right ankle, "My leg! My leg!" He started twisting and turning while in a fetal position.  
Luna's eyes widened as she suddenly realized that Shinji was very much alive but was in pain. She rushed to his side, "What's wrong?"  
"M-my ankle! I twisted my ankle!" he said, gritting his teeth. It hurt like hell. It hurt worse than a punch in the face from Ranma.  
Luna quickly held her hands outward, palms facing his hurt ankle and said a word of healing. Her hands started glowing.  
Before he knew it, Shinji's pain seemed to disappear. Before long, the pain disappeared completely as he found himself sitting down, Luna kneeling close to him.  
"A-are you okay?" she asked, concern in her voice.  
Shinji took a moment to compose himself, "Y-yeah,"  
"H-how did you survive that?" she asked, totally shocked. It wasn't as if she wasn't grateful that Shinji was okay, but she could not fathom how he had managed to survive such a fall, and with only twisting his ankle.  
Shinji breathed a sigh of relief, "Man, I can't believe I managed to survive that,"  
"Neither could I!" she said.  
"Ranma taught me how to land correctly from high places. However, I never learned how to fall from that high a place. That's why I twisted my ankle on the landing, because a fall from that high is so scary that I guess I panicked at the end and messed up the landing,"  
Luna was speechless. What the heck has Ranma been teaching Shinji and just how much had he taught him?  
"Man, I'm glad you were around to heal me," Shinji said gratefully, "Otherwise, I'd be in agony right now. Thanks,"  
"What are you talking about?" Luna said, surprised, "I should be the one thanking you,"  
"Thanking me? For what?" he asked, scratching his head.  
"For surviving!"

Shinji was huddled around a campfire.  
Even though it was pouring out and he was soaking wet, he was surprised that the campfire was actually doing a good job in keeping him warm. Behind him was the tent that he had set up. He felt very self-conscious as he sat there. There was only one tent so he and Luna would be sharing it together. Thank goodness they had separate sleeping bags.  
It was late in the evening. Only an hour had passed since that free-fall nearly scared him half to death. Luna was not around, having gone off on her own in an attempt to communicate with a dragon that was not too far away from where he was. She didn't want to bring him along for fear that a similar incident would happen once again.  
Luna's arrival at the campsite startled Shinji.  
"Nothing," she said with a sigh, sitting down by the campfire. As she did so, she cast a quick spell that created an invisible dome over the campsite that prevented the rain from soaking through. "It's kinda useless," Shinji smirked, "We're both soaking wet,"  
Luna smirked as she said a few words and then touched Shinji and then herself. The two of them glowed red for a short moment. When the glow died, they were both dry.  
"Wow, that's so cool," Shinji said.  
"I would've cast this before I left, but you would've been soaked immediately afterwards," she said.  
"I guess you have a point. Anyway, what did you mean by 'nothing'?" he asked.  
"The answer from the dragon," she said, "It didn't help one bit. It just randomly attacked me and I was forced to defend myself and kill it. This has got me worried because nothing should spook dragons to do something like this. Dragons don't randomly attack things or people. It only does so for a reason,"  
"What are we going to do?" Shinji asked.  
"Well, it's late and I'm a bit tired," Luna said, yawning, "As much as I would like to get to Anlinson Castle as soon as possible, I'm still not impervious to using magic and getting tired. That portal spell took a lot out of me. However, a good night's rest will replenish my strength,"  
"If you were so tired, you should've rested right after we got here," Shinji said, "You shouldn't push yourself,"  
Luna waved a dismissive hand, "The portal saps a good deal of my strength but not all of it. However, we've been flying for several hours and I fought off two dragons. After doing that, that's enough to get someone like myself tired,"  
"Sleep replenishes your energy?" Shinji asked.  
She smiled, "Not sleep. Just resting and doing nothing will replenish my strength. Keep in mind I was using magic from the moment we left the other world to get here. I've got a lot of energy, but I don't have an unlimited supply of it, at least not like the way Ranma does,"  
"You think Ranma has an unlimited supply of energy?" Shinji asked.  
"No, but it sure seems like it, doesn't it?"

"Damn dragons!" Luna swore, killing her tenth dragon the next day.  
"Why are they constantly attacking you?" Shinji asked curiously.  
"Like I said, they're spooked about something," she said.  
They were flying once again through the sky which surprised the heck out of Luna that Shinji would allow himself to fly after such a terrifying experience. Perhaps it was because if they flew, they would arrive at Anlinson Castle quicker instead of walking. Besides, Shinji had no intention of spending around two weeks on this world, no offense to Luna that is.  
He just wanted to get to this world and bring Emiko back home.  
"What makes you think Emiko will come home with us?" Luna had asked when Shinji had mentioned that.  
"Because I want her to come back," he said without thought.  
Luna had smiled.  
She liked how emphatic Shinji was about getting Emiko to come back.

"You look good, Emiko," Rene said.  
"You, too, Your Majesty," Emiko said, bowing politely. She was glad to have finally made it to Anlinson Castle. Having arrived about one day's distance away from the castle, she had trekked non-stop to get there.  
Emiko was kneeling before a beautiful woman, a woman she served and watched over not too long ago. Rene was more beautiful than back then, having grown up and matured over the years. Although still a princess, she no longer had that snobbish princess-like attitude she used to have. Perhaps it was her encounter with Ranma years ago that taught her humility.  
Rene waved a dismissive hand, "Please, call me Rene,"  
"Um, okay, Rene-sama," she said.  
Rene smiled, "So, what brings you back?"  
"Um, I'm embarrassed to say," she replied, "I request that you not ask,"  
"Okay," Rene said.  
"I've come to ask for your forgiveness," Emiko said, assuming a begging position, "Can you please forgive my leaving here and accept me back? I wish to serve under you once again,"  
Rene gave Emiko an odd look, "Serve me again? What for?"  
"Things didn't go so well with, um, Ranma and I," Emiko said, gritting her teeth for having to lie to Rene, "I want to come back, that is, if you'll accept me,"  
"Sure. Welcome back,"

"Ranma told me much about his adventure," Shinji commented the next day as they flew toward their destination.  
"Oh?" Luna perked an eyebrow.  
"Yeah," Shinji said, "We talk a lot. He told me basically everything about what he did on this world,"  
"Ah, so you're aware of the Anlinson Royal Family?" Luna asked, "Most particularly, Rene Anlinson, the princess?"  
Shinji nodded, "I'm aware of them, but I've never met them or Rene for that matter,"  
"Perhaps you can enlighten me," Luna said, curious. She knew quite a bit about Ranma but he never really went in to details about the adventures he has had. The only thing she knew about that name was that Ranma once helped her out which eventually result in him meeting Emiko along the way.  
"From what I remember Ranma telling me," Shinji began, "Rene's carriage and convoy was attacked by a bunch of assassins and such and Ranma had happened to have been there to save her,"  
"That's what I remember Ranma telling me," Luna commented.  
"Her convey that was accompanying her and guarding her was attacked. Every one of them but her were killed," he said, "Ranma, having saved her, offered to escort her to her castle. Sometime along the way, Emiko was asked to look for this Rene person. She ended up finding Ranma and Rene and, I guess, joined up with them. Because of something Ranma did, something about removing her mask, and that Emiko had to follow some weird ninja law, Emiko was expected to marry Ranma or kill herself,"  
Luna smirked. She remembered hearing about that law. There were weird laws on that world. "I guess Emiko chose a different path," Shinji shrugged, "Since she didn't want to marry Ranma, or kill herself for that matter I think, she relinquished her title as being a ninja to no longer make herself honor bound to obeying that law,"  
Luna smirked, "I guess I can see Emiko going to such an extreme as that. Up until not all that long ago, it looked like she harbored absolute malice toward Ranma. I guess the thought of being honor bound to marry Ranma made her sick to her stomach,"  
Shinji chuckled, "I guess. Anyway, I hope we find her there at Anlinson Castle because that's the only lead we've got it seems, huh?"  
"Right,"  
Emiko gazed out the window of her bedroom toward the dark clouds high above.  
She had her own bedroom. It was in the castle, a big step up from the small shed-like house that she had lived in back then, long ago. She knew why. She and Rene were friends and Rene was now looking out for her, basically returning Emiko the favor that Emiko had done her years before.  
She was very happy that Rene accepted her back, than the Anlinson Royal Family accepted her back, especially after she told them that she was no longer obligated to serving them because she was obligated to be with Ranma after he had accidentally removed her mask that fateful day.  
That day had changed her life.  
However, even though that date had been the changing point, she came to realize that now, many years after that day, she was right back where she had started, serving the Royal Family.  
She wasn't disgruntled about that, far from it. She truly enjoyed serving them. She could have had it much worse, forced to serve a tyrant or dictator with no sense of kindness, a complete opposite to the person she was serving now. Despite this, she felt a sense of sadness. Was she cut out for this kind of life? She had really enjoyed being with Shinji on that other world.  
She wondered if Shinji would ever come to get her.  
"No, he won't," she said to herself sadly, "He has Sumi. Why would he come to get me? At least this way, I'm not around to complicate his life, especially when he's with Sumi and is aware of my feelings for him,"  
Tears fell down her cheeks.  
She was so sad it tore away at her. She knew she would be forever sad until the day she died. However, there was one thing that made her a bit happy, if she thought about it hard enough.  
At least Shinji was going to be happy.

Shinji shifted restlessly in his sleeping back as he tried to go to sleep.  
He and Luna were only one day away from Anlinson Castle. He was pretty sure that he would find Emiko there. Unfortunately, he had no idea what he was going to see if, no, once he saw her again.  
"Is something bothering you?" Luna's voice startled him.  
Shinji turned around in his sleeping bag to face him, "Kinda,"  
"Care to talk about it?" she asked curiously. She had a very good idea what, or better yet, who, Shinji wanted to talk about.  
Shinji sighed, "I'm wondering what I'm gonna say to Emiko,"  
"Just say whatever comes to your mind. Or better yet, your heart for that matter," she said, her last sentence said too softly for Shinji to hear.  
"I'm worried I'll blank out and not know what to say," Shinji said, "Why would that be the case? You'll be talking to Emiko. When have you ever had problems talking to Emiko?"  
"I've never had problems talking to her," he answered, "It's really easy talking to her. We talk all the time and I feel like I can talk to her for hours about nothing,"  
"So what seems to be the problem?" she smirked, wondering if Shinji was actually paying attention to what he was saying.  
Shinji sighed, "I don't know. I really don't know,"  
"Actually, you just don't know it yet,"  
"Huh?" he asked.  
"Nevermind," she smiled warmly, "Just go get some sleep. I'm sure you'll think of something when the time comes,"  
"Hopefully,"  
Shinji and Luna crossed the drawbridge that led to the main castle gates. It was around noontime when the two of them arrived at their destination, hovering down to the ground right in front of the castle. It was still pouring and it still looked as if it were night time.  
Standing in front of the castle gates were two armed guards. "Step aside. Let us pass," Luna said in a rather commanding voice to both guards.  
Shinji watched in amazement as the guards seemed to listen to her and do as she commanded, stepping aside for her and Shinji to pass.  
Together, the two passed through the castle gate and in to a large courtyard. "Wow, you're really well-known on this world, huh?" Shinji asked in awe as they crossed the courtyard.  
Luna smirked, "I'm fairly well-known. I've got free reign on where ever I want to go. I can go to the other side of this world and they would let me pass through castle gates over there much like over here. Most people recognize me. If they don't, just telling them my name should be good enough,"  
"There's no form of photo ID on this world?" Shinji asked, "What if someone pretends to be you to get in to a castle?"  
Luna laughed slightly, "I don't have to worry about that. My name generally instills fear to people and it would definitely do the same for people trying to use it, much less hearing it,"  
"Are you some kind of really evil person on this world?" Shinji asked, scratching his head, "I mean, you say your name instills fear and such. That must mean you must be a really powerful bad-guy on this world,"  
Luna nearly fell down laughing. She ended up laughing for a good two minutes before she managed gather herself.  
"No, I'm not some super powerful 'bad-guy' as you put it," she smiled, finding the comment extremely cute, "Actually, I'm considered the opposite,"  
"A weak good-guy?" he asked.  
Luna laughed again, "No. More along he lines of a super powerful good-guy as you put it. My name generally instills a sense of respect and fear. The fear comes from stories of what I've done to my sister one time when I found out that she was...let's just say that my sister made me angry,"  
"What does that have to do with it?" Shinji asked.  
"Lina's made a big name for herself," Luna commented, "She's known for causing extreme amounts of damage where ever she goes,"  
"I've noticed, she blew up parts of the house, what, three times already?" Shinji smirked.  
Luna nodded, "Right. Anyway, everyone knows my sister. However, everyone knows about what I did to her for making me angry. In a sense, people fear me because they fear my sister...and since my sister fears me when I get angry...let's just say people don't want to get me angry,"  
"Oh," Shinji gulped.  
Luna smiled, "Don't worry, you'll never see that side. I've got a long rope,"  
"Um, that's good to hear," Shinji gave a meek smile.  
"Let's head on in to the castle,"

A deluge of emotions enveloped Shinji when he saw Emiko.  
Although only a few days had elapsed since he found out she had disappeared to this world, it felt like he hadn't seen her in years.  
He had found her in one of the many hallways. How he had managed to stumble in to her was pure luck. Luna was not there, having stayed behind to chat with the king and queen, purposely doing so so that Shinji would not have her along being a third wheel for when he did finally find Emiko.  
"Emiko," he felt this great sense of relief.  
"S-Shinji?" Emiko was shocked when he saw him. Could she be missing him that much that her eyes were playing tricks on her? She had missed him so dearly that she found this a cruel joke that her mind was playing on her.  
Shinji closed the distance between them in a split second.  
Before she realized what happened, she was in Shinji's arms in a tight embrace.  
"You scared the heck outta me," Shinji said, "God, how I've missed you. I'm not kidding,"  
"W-what are you doing here?" she asked.  
Shinji reluctantly released his embrace to stare deeply at Emiko.  
As he did, something inside of him clicked. Seeing her made him suddenly realize something, that he definitely wasn't going to leave unless she was coming with him. That was something he was sure of. He didn't know why but he knew that it was something very important and worth nothing. Heh, it was probably because he was in love with her and didn't realize it until this very moment...  
Shinji froze dead in his tracks as that crossed his mind. He, in love with Emiko? That couldn't be it, right?  
Emiko regarded Shinji for a moment, noticing this inner conflict within him.  
"Um, is something the matter?" she asked curiously.  
Shinji regarded her for a moment. There was something the matter all of this time. That was it. He had been in love with Emiko all this time and was now coming to realize it. It wasn't until he lost her did he realize what he had all this time.  
He had taken her for granted.  
Emiko watched as Shinji got down on his hands and knees in a begging position.  
"Emiko, please, don't hate me for hurting you so much. I was wrong in my choice. I took you for granted," he said in a pleading voice, "I didn't realize what I had until I lost it,"  
Tears started flowing from her eyes. Was he trying to say what she thought and had secretly prayed that he would say? The past few days away from Shinji had been heart wrenching. She really didn't want to be away from Shinji.  
"I'm sorry that it took so long...but it wasn't until you had disappeared did I realize that I've loved you all this time," he said, "I-I know it sounds corny, but it's the truth. I don't to want to ever lose you,"  
When he looked up, he found himself face-to-face with her, Emiko having gotten down on her hands and knees to be closer to him.  
He smiled warmly toward her, speaking what was on his heart.  
"I love you,"

Rene regarded the handsome young man.  
He wasn't quite as handsome or tall or as ilt the man she was comparing to but was definitely noteworthy a person. Shinji was standing before her in the throne room. In that room was Emiko and Luna as well. Although the throne room was where the king and queen, Rene's parents, usually delegated duties, they weren't there. They were elsewhere in the castle, seeing to it that it remained fortified and repel those random dragons that attacked. Luckily, the castle had a small but extremely powerful army of magic-users capable of protecting the castle competently.  
Rene was assessing Shinji. Emiko ultimately served her so it was her decision whether or not to allow Emiko free of her duties to go with Shinji. She wanted to see if Emiko, her friend, would be in good hands.  
"You remind me of someone," Rene commented.  
"Um, Shinji and Ranma know each other, Rene-sama," Emiko said.  
Rene's eyes widened at the mention of Ranma's name, "Really? You and Ranma know each other? How's Ranma doing?"  
Shinji gave a meek, "Um, yeah, we know each other. Ranma's doing fine, at least when I left,"  
"It's been so long since we've last seen each other," Rene said in a happy voice, "What's he look like now? Does he still keep his hair braided in that pig-tail he seemed to like sporting?"  
"Um, yeah, he still does,"  
"That's so cool," she said, using a word she remembered Ranma seemed to use a lot.  
Whoa, she's a princess and future queen but she acts like a schoolgirl, Shinji thought. I can't believe this is Ranma's doing. Ranma said when he first met her, she acted like an uptight princess but mellowed out as time passed. Did he make her mellow out so much that she doesn't even realize that she's a future queen?  
"I expect you'll be taking good care of her," Rene said, sounding much more like a future queen.  
Shinji nodded, "Of course,"  
"I'll be angry if you make her sad," she added.  
"Nothing to worry about there," he gave a shy smile, "I have no intention of making her angry. Um, I do do a few stupid things from time to time that would probably make her angry at me, but it's purely unintentional,"  
"That's good to hear," she said, "And keep it that way,"  
Rene gazed toward Emiko and gave her a warm smile.  
"I release you from your duties," she said, "You're free to go with him,"  
"Thank you, Your Majesty," Emiko said gratefully.  
Rene smiled. There was no way in hell that she would ever make Emiko stay here. She would never want to be in such a situation. For instance, if Ranma were to, say, come by and sweep her off her feet and give her the opportunity to go with him to where ever he might decide, she would not want to be forced not to do so because of her parents' decision. She didn't want Emiko to be in such a situation that Rene feared would ever happen to her.  
"Well, I guess it's about time we head back," Luna said.  
Everyone said their goodbyes. When they were done, Luna extended her hands forward and said a quick chant, summoning forth the portal that would lead them back home.  
Together, they all passed through the portal. At least, that's what Shinji thought.  
When he tried stepping through it, he found himself passing through it as if it didn't exist. He realized this when he tried to step through and found himself behind the portal, not on the other side, on a different world.  
"What the?" he asked. He tried it several time, resulting in the same outsurp, him just passing right through it as if it didn't exist.  
Everyone had a confused look on their face.  
"Is something the matter?" Rene asked.  
"I dunno," came his reply, "I can't seem to pass through it,"  
Luna was every bit as confused as everyone else, perhaps even more confused.  
"I don't understand," she commented, "I'm not conjuring the portal any different than when I first conjured it all those other times,"  
"Maybe you need to rest," Emiko commented.  
Curious, she walked up to the portal and tried to pass through. To everyone's surprise, she disappeared through it.  
"What the?" Shinji said, "How come Emiko passed through but I didn't?"  
Emiko immediately passed back through a minute later. She had this panicked look on her face. It was definitely something that made Luna and Shinji and Rene feel uneasy.  
"Luna, you guy's have got to see this!" she said.  
Luna walked up to the portal and peeked her head through. She seemed to look through it for a minute or so. When she pulled her head back through, she looked every bit as worried as Emiko.  
"Shinji, you've got to see this! Something's terribly wrong with your world!" Luna gasped.  
Shinji tried to pass through the portal but couldn't, "How? I can't pass through or even look through it! What's wrong?"  
"Your world is burning!" Luna said, "The entire city of MegaTokyo is destroyed and is nothing but burning rubble!"  
"What?" Shinji's eyes widened, "We have to get back! How come I can't pass through the portal?"  
Luna extended her hand forward from the portal and grabbed Shinji's hand, "Maybe with me on the other side, I can pull you through,"  
She tried just that. Unfortunately, when she tried to pull him through, he passed right through and didn't end up on the other side. For Luna, she found herself falling to the ground on the other side as she felt Shinji's hand suddenly disappear, him seemingly unable to pass through.  
"What the heck's going on here?" Emiko asked, worried. She was looking about at all the destruction before her. The sky was pitch black and it was pouring out, much worse than before.  
Emiko thought of something.  
She quickly passed back through the portal to where Shinji was and handed him the nanban mirror, "Here, try and nanban mirror,"  
"That's a great idea. Okay, I'll give it a try," he said.  
He thought about the other world as he forced himself to shed a tear on to the mirror. The moment the tear dropped on the reflective surface, a sphere of light enveloped him for a short moment. However, when it disappeared, he was right where he was.  
"What's going on here?" Shinji asked, "The nanban mirror isn't working either. Is it broken or something?"  
Emiko shook her head, "No. I did nothing to it that could've broken it,"  
He scratched his head, "What gives?"  
Luna said, "Emiko, Shinji, you guys stay here. I'm going to go look for Ranma. He's a much better problem-solver than myself and is good at figuring things like this out. I'll go find him and bring him back over to where you guys are,"  
"Okay," Shinji said.  
Luna disappeared back through the portal, the portal closing behind her.  
"What do you think's taking Luna so long?" Shinji asked, a bit impatient.  
Emiko shrugged, "I'm not too sure,"  
The two of them had been waiting about in the throne room for the past hour. Rene was still there with them. However, she was just as confused as the two of them were. "Tell me again, what did you see on the other side?" Shinji asked. Emiko was silent for a moment, "I really don't know. It looked like a massive explosion had occurred right over the city of MegaTokyo. There's nothing left. All the building and houses and such were destroyed. The sky was pitch black and it was pouring out. The sky was so dark I have no idea what time it is over there,"  
The muscles around Shinji's jaw tightened, "What the hell happened? Is that my world? Maybe Luna accidentally summoned a portal to some different world,"  
Emiko said, "That could be the case, but how can that be possible? This is Luna we're talking about. How can she make a mistake using magic?"  
"I guess you've got a point," Shinji sighed.  
A round sphere of light suddenly appeared in the throne room.  
When it disappeared, Shinji and Emiko found themselves regarding a familiar looking person. She was tall and very beautiful and had flowing white hair. She had a deep tan and sported very beautiful and colorful clothes that seemed magical in properties.  
It was Urd.  
"U-Urd?" Shinji asked, "What are you doing here?"  
Suddenly, something clicked. Ranma must've sent her. Since he and Urd kept in contact with one another, he must've called her and requested that she bring them back home. If he thought about it, it was really easy for Ranma to talk to Urd. He has her phone number on speed dial. Talk about ridiculous. He had God's phone number on speed dial!  
"We're so glad you came to get us," Shinji said, "We don't know what's wrong, but I can't seem to pass through Luna's portal or use the nanban mirror to get back to my world,"  
He looked up at Urd's face and noticed that she looked very concerned, like something terrible was on her mind.  
When they saw the worried look on Urd's face, something deep down inside told them that it wasn't Ranma that had gotten her to come to get them.  
"Urd?"  
"There's no time to be happy to see each other! We have to get you back home to your world!" Urd said in a concerned voice, "We are in deep shit! I mean really deep shit!"  
Urd was worried? What the heck could worry her? She was God! Nothing should ever worry someone as powerful as her.  
Urd said, grabbing Shinji's hand, "Ranma and Ryoga are fighting him and are losing badly,"  
"Who?"  
"Who do you think? The God-version of Ranma's back!" Urd said, "And he's killed all but Ryoga and Ranma! Everyone else is already dead!"  
The color drained from Shinji's face.

Urd brought Shinji back to the world.  
When the sphere of light disappeared, Shinji was about to survey his surroundings. He and Emiko, both given the ability of temporary flight due to Urd's behalf, found themselves hovering over an area in the middle of a pile of rubble. Stretching in every direction was nothing but debris. He could see the horizons easily, all the sky-reaching building nothing more than a pile of rubble that littered the area.  
"W-where are we?" he asked. It looks like a thousand N2 mines exploded over this place, he thought.  
"This is MegaTokyo!" Urd said.  
"No way!" Shinji gasped.  
He looked further ahead where he saw this massive crater that was probably around two miles in diameter. From his high vantage point, he was able to see the inside of the crater. The crater had no bottom because it opened up to the GeoFront that was located under MegaTokyo, the underground factory that used to be a part of Genom's before its destruction.  
"What's goin on here?" he asked as Urd hovered him and Emiko down to the ground.  
"I don't have much time to tell you," Urd said, "It'll only be a matter of time before the battle makes its way to where we are,"  
"What fight?"  
"The battle between Ranma and Ryoga as they try to fight the God-version of Ranma. They managed to slow him down enough so I could come get you," Urd answered, "You're the key to everything. Ranma, all this time, knew that this was going to happen and had trained you for this moment, for this final battle against the God-version of himself. If the God-version of Ranma gets to me, that's it. Everything will cease to exist. You have to kill him before he kills me. He's trying to kill himself and the only way for him to die is to kill me and which will cease to exist everything as well including himself,"  
Shinji gulped, "M-me? I've got to do this?"  
"Yes!" Urd said. It was very odd. Although she was still God, she was not powerful enough to fight off this Ranma. God was omnipotent because He or She created everything. However, there was never such a scenario where God had to fight God.  
A massive explosion erupted nearby. Emiko fell to the floor, unable to keep her balance. Shinji managed to stay afoot. Urd simply hovered slightly in to the air to be unaffected by the tremors.  
They looked over where they caught sight of three figures. One of them was running for its life while it was being chased by a second figure. The last figure seemed to be following closely behind the second one, shooting projectiles toward its back.  
Shinji's eyes widened when he caught sight of the figure running.  
It was Ranma.  
"Fuck!" Ranma leaped in to the air as a projectile hit the ground where he was a second ago, a massive explosion erupting. As he ran right by the group, he noticed Emiko and Shinji.  
"Help me out here!" Ranma said, words he had never said before.  
He ran right back, leaping once again in to the sky as another explosion erupted nearby.  
"Stay the fuck away from him!" Urd sneered toward the chasing figure.  
They watched as Urd shot an projectile from her extended hands toward the chasing figure, hitting it directly, a massive explosion engulfing it. The explosion was so powerful that the wind from the shockwave ended up sending Shinji and Urd flying through the air.  
Emiko flipped in mid-air, landing on her feet a short distance away. Shinji wasn't so lucky, unable to right himself in mid-air, and landed on his back. However, he quickly rolled backwards and flipped back to his feet.  
Shinji and Emiko watched in disbelief as they saw the figure emerge from the explosion, continuing to chase after Ranma. As it got closer, they recognized it.  
It was Ranma. No. It wasn't. This one was different. There was a pervasive aura of power that surrounded him. Emiko and Shinji dropped to their feet as they felt it. Emiko recognized that aura. It was the same aura that the God-  
version of Ranma gave off.  
Shinji, on the other hand, was feeling it for the first time. He did not like the feeling. It felt like a feeling of fear and panic. It made his knees weak and his body almost unmoving.  
Urd, not wanting to be attacked by the God-version of Ranma, quickly made herself disappear.  
They watched in disbelief as he ran right past them, ignoring them, continuing to chase after Ranma, shooting projectiles from his hands. Being so close to him as he ran by, they were able to feel the heat being generated from the projectiles from being within such close proximity.  
A second after that Ranma had ran by them, Ryoga came to a sliding halt. He been chasing after him as he had been chasing Ranma. He had been hitting that Ranma with every special attack that he muster and those attacks were having no effect on him.  
"Shinji! Thank goodness you're here!" Ryoga said, shooting a ki-blast at that Ranma's back for good measure, hoping the dust caused from it would provide a good smoke screen, in case that Ranma decided he wanted to try and retaliate toward him.  
"W-what's going on?" Shinji asked, getting back up to his feet, "Where is everyone?"  
"What do you think? The God-version of Ranma's back and more deadly than ever!" Ryoga said, "He has more control of his powers than when we last saw him. Everyone's dead. Everyone in the entire city was killed because of him! Even Luna got killed! All the damage was caused by him trying to get to Ranma! Before I forget, Ranma made a weapon. You need to find it..."  
From out of nowhere, a projectile came rocketing from the settling dust.  
Ryoga could've dodged it. However, Shinji and Emiko would not.  
Without thinking a second thought, Ryoga shoved Shinji out of the way just as he was struck by the projectile in the back. A massive explosion erupted against his back, expanding outward in all direction, engulfing him and the hapless Emiko in the process. The blast hit Ryoga with such force that it sent him flying bodily several hundred feet, coming to a sliding halt. Luckily for Ryoga, he had been killed on impact. Emiko had received a similar damage, also blown bodily through the air where she came to a sliding halt a good distance away from where she had been caught in the blast.  
"No!" Shinji shouted as he rushed up to Emiko.  
They grew sick at the sight of Emiko. Her body was torn apart and covered with blood. He didn't need to check to know that Emiko, Ryoga as well, had been killed by that single blast.  
"Oh my god!" Shinji felt overwhelmed, tears flowing freely.  
After moment to comprehend what had just happened, Shinji gritted his teeth, feeling a great sense of hatred toward the God-version of Ranma he had once helped. How did all of this happen? Why was he doing that?  
A massive explosion could be seen a short distance away. The brilliance from the explosion made Shinji shield his eyes.  
"Oh no," Shinji gasped as he recognized the explosion. It was Ranma's Seppukku Mouko Takabisha.  
He watched in disbelief as the explosion expanded outward, consuming everything in its path. When the shockwave finally reached them, the wind ended up sending him flying through the air where Shinji ended up landing on his back once again and needing to flip back up.  
When the explosion subsided, all that remained was a giant crater a mile in diameter. Aside from the pouring rain, everything was suddenly very quiet.  
Eyesight blurry from the tears mixed in with rain, Shinji ran up to the edge of the crater, dreading what he would see. Unfortunately for him, he misjudged how solid the ground surrounding the crater was and ended up falling in to the crater itself when the ground gave out from under his feet.  
He ended up tumbling down around halfway in to the crater before he managed to stop himself.  
When he found himself with a firm footing, he glance down toward the center of the crater where he saw two Ranma's. Unfortunately, one of them seemed to have been unaffected by the explosion. The God-version of Ranma was totally unscathed while he held a badly battered a bloody Ranma by his neck, his feet off the ground.  
"You think your so-called Seppukku Mouko Takabisha could hurt me?" he sneered, "You're pathetic,"  
"F-fuck you!" Ranma sneered defiantly, the blood in his eyes clouding his vision.  
With his last bit of strength, Ranma raised one of his arms, fighting back the excruciating pain he was feeling from his dislocated shoulder.  
"Die!" Ranma shouted, shooting a ki-blast right in to his other version's face.  
A massive explosion erupted, engulfing both Ranma's. Shinji was nearly blown back out of the crater from the wind generate from the shockwave.  
When the dust cleared, Shinji found himself looking at both Ranma. Once again, the God-version of Ranma was holding Ranma by the neck. However, this time around, Ranma was dead, his body hanging limply in the man's hands.  
After a moment, the man dropped Ranma to the ground, no longer needing to do anything else. Ranma, the man he detested and hated with every fiber of his being, was no more.  
Shinji watched with unbelieving eyes as a portal suddenly appeared in front of the man. A second later, the man stepped through it and disappeared.  
Tears started streaming from the young man's eyes.  
"No! T-This can't be happening!"  
Shinji had spent at least two days burying his friends. He had found their bodies very close to one another. He had come to the realization that the pile of debris he found them under used to be his old house. Burying his friends was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life. He cried until he could cry no more as he did so, burying them and praying that they would have peace.  
He had no idea if he was alone on this world. There was destruction for as far as the eyes could see. Everything was silent save for the pouring rain.  
"What am I going to do?" Shinji asked himself, wishing someone could answer his question. If Ranma was around, he would know what to do. However, he wasn't. Ranma, much like everyone else, had been killed.

"Shinji,"  
Shinji didn't stir. Actually, he didn't want to. Everything felt surreal. The feel of the rain falling on him as he tried to sleep on nothing but the charcoaled remains of what used to be his bed. He had found his bed among the wreckage that used to be his house.  
He felt a nudge on his shoulder.  
Shinji opened his eyes, disoriented.  
It took him a moment for his eyes to focus. When they came to focus, he found himself looking up at Urd.  
"U-Urd?" he asked.  
"I don't have much time," Urd looked very concerned, "He's going to be here shortly and there are some important things I need to tell you,"  
Shinji sat upright. It took him a moment to take in his surroundings. Looking about, he found himself soaking wet, in what used to be his bedroom. The only difference was that there was no ceiling and only one wall still remained standing. The bedroom was also at ground-level, the entire first floor of the house having collapsed.  
"What's do you want to tell me?" he asked, not really caring what he hears. Everything felt surreal and he wanted everything to end.  
"I want to tell you what happened," she said.  
Shinji looked up at her, trying to give her his undivided attention. "This is a lot to take in, but you're going to have to accept it because there's basically nothing you can do at this point but to do so," Urd began, "Ranma, all along, knew this was going to happen. He has been training you all this time for when this happened. However, you were not on this world to stop everything from happening when it happened,"  
"T-training me?" Shinji asked.  
"I'm sorry, but that's the truth," she said sadly, "Anyway, Ranma had expected you to be here for when this happened. However, since you weren't around, this was what happened. No, it's not your fault. It was just something that was never taken in to consideration on Ranma's behalf. Ranma, before his death, had created a weapon for you to use. This weapon has the ability to basically kill himself,"  
"Kill himself?"  
"Ranma made the one weapon that can kill himself," Urd said, "I don't know if you or anyone know this, but Ranma, the one who've been training you, still retains his power from when he was God. Remember the incident when his other version tried to kill himself with the Lance of Longinus, but for some odd reason, couldn't? That's because the only weapon that can kill God is a weapon God creates himself. Ranma created the weapon that would kill himself,"  
"Why do you say kill himself?" Shinji was confused, "If Ranma made the weapon, why can't he wield it instead? Why do I hafta do it?"  
"Because, Ranma became the man you saw just before," Urd said.  
"What?"  
Urd nodded, "Ranma knew he was eventually going to turn back in to the God-  
version of himself. That's why he trained you to be good enough to kill him. Because this time around, you're fighting an opponent with Ranma's fighting abilities and the powers of God and myself,"  
"What?" Shinji gasped, "What about the Ranma that I saw die?"  
"He was the first version of Ranma, the one that died a long time ago trying to prevent the Second Impact," Urd said, "In a sense, he was the Adam of this world that Rei merged with long ago,"  
"Oh man, this is too much," Shinji rubbing his head profusely.  
"You're going to have to take it in," Urd said, "I brought that first Ranma back in so he could team up with Ryoga to slow the omnipotent one down long enough so I could retrieve you from the other worlds,"  
Shinji was silent.  
"Only two people exist that can kill this Ranma that we have on our hands," Urd said, "You and myself. Unfortunately, there's too much at risk for me to try and fight him. He can kill me. Afterall, God and kill God. If I lose, that's it. Everything ceases to exist. However, with you, you have a chance since he isn't after you,"  
"You said only God and kill God," Shinji said, "How the hell am I to kill him?"  
"Because, you've got the exact same properties as God," Urd san pu "What?"  
"You died a while ago and was resurrected," Urd answered, "However, little do you or anyone know that you were bestowed the exact same powers. That's why you're so powerful now, because those powers are starting to slowly show itself,"  
"It is?"  
Urd nodded, "Have you noticed you're not shivering? It's freezing out but you're not cold. Those powers are already starting to surface. The problem is that you don't know how to control it and it would take too long for it to surface enough for you to take advantage of it. That's why I had to come and get you, because those powers are starting to surface. Remember back then one of the problems was getting the God-version of Ranma over to that other world? He was too powerful for Luna's portal or the nanban mirror to work? It's already happened to you.  
Shinji was silent. So that was why.  
"However, this is because you don't understand exactly how to use your powers. If you knew, you'd actually be able to use it," she added, "Anyway, Ranma knew you had this dormant power which is why he trained you so hard. Because he knew you had the potential to kill him when the time came. He wanted you around so you and everyone could team together and kill him. However, because you weren't around, no one was able to stop him and this is what resulted,"  
"Is that why I saw dragons all spooked out on the other world and the sky was always dark?" Shinji asked.  
"Yes, because this incident is just so grand that it stretches worlds," Urd said, "The skies getting dark was the tell-tale sign of Ranma's eventual change,"  
"W-what am I supposed to do?"  
"The weapon to be used to kill Ranma is incredibly heavy," Urd said, "That's why Ranma wanted Ryoga around, because he could wield the weapon. Ryoga can use that weapon to hurt that Ranma but he can't use it to make the killing blow. That's where you come in,"  
"Oh man," Shinji said, "I-I don't know if I could do that,"  
"You're going to have to," she said, "However, that is now moot since everything's now different. Since Ryoga isn't around to wield the weapon. Now, you have to wield it yourself. The problem is that it's too heavy for you to hold since your powers are starting to surface now and it would be a while before you get strong enough to do so. So what we're going to have to do is basically jump-start your powers,"  
"J-jump-start my powers?"  
Urd nodded, "Yes. Ranma's a master when it comes to planning. Remember that request the God-version of Ranma made before he released Ranma and Rei from his body?"  
Shinji nodded, "Yes, he wanted to no longer exist. He basically wanted to have his existence erased,"  
"That's right," Urd said, "However, Ranma didn't do that. He purposely let him live. He just removed the aspect about how Angels would attack him one day. This was because he had planned a contingency plan, that something like this might happen. You are to basically go to that world and take his powers,"  
"What?"  
"You've got the potential to become powerful like that Ranma," Urd said, "But that would take time, something we do not have. Ranma had purposely let that Ranma live if ever the case you need to, in a sense, jump-start your powers. That way, with your fighting abilities and that Ranma's power, you might be able to defeat the current Ranma we have at hand trying to kill me,"  
"My fighting abilities against Ranma's fighting abilities?" Shinji gasped, "How do you expect me to hit him? I've yet to ever hit him!"  
"That's why Ranma created that weapon before he basically became possessed," Urd said, "That weapon is going to give you the advantage against him. The thing is is that you need to get powerful enough to wield it so you're going to have to go to that other world now,"  
"Oh man," Shinji said, "This is just too much,"  
"I'm sorry, but you're going to have to deal with it," Urd brought her hand forward and touched Shinji.  
A second later, Shinji disappeared, wisped away to anotngs world.  
"Good luck, Shinji, everyone's depending on you," Shinji looked up at the sky.  
The sky was clear. It was a beautiful day out. He had a funny feeling why, because the Ranma of this world had enough control of his powers to create good weather.  
He looked about. This world looked perfectly fine, a stark contrast from the world where he had been before.  
He had no idea where he was or how he was going to find the omnipotent Ranma of this world.  
Shinji sighed, a great sense of sadness within him. He wanted to be a normal person living a normal life. However, from the looks of things, a goal like becoming a Heavyweight Champion seemed trivial. In a sense, many things suddenly became trivial. He didn't even know if Oki or Sumi were still alive. However, it as good chance they were dead too. Oki winning the tournament seemed like it would never happen. Everything up until now seemed trivial.  
What was he going to do?  
He felt as if he knew where Ranma Saotome was coming from. Ranma had lost his friends and family in the Nerima Massacre. In a sense, something equivalent to what had happened to Ranma had happened to Shinji. Shinji had basically gone through something similar to Ranma had gone through decades before. What Shinji believe was a normal life had been changed completely in a blink of an eye.  
And so began Shinji's adventure to succeed Ranma's legacy...

The end


End file.
